Dreams, Despair, and Faith Theme Analysis

Throughout “I Have a Dream”—a rousing civil rights address structured like a sermon—religious faith plays a significant role. After laying bare the brutal facts of racism in America, King offers up a dream of an America in which people of all races and faiths live together in harmony and mutual respect. Even though King has known despair, he’s still able to dream of a future where white and Black children hold hands, where the South transforms from a racist inferno into a peaceful oasis, and where his children will be judged by their character instead of their race—and he’s able to dream this because of his faith in the equality of “all God’s children.” In order to create a more just future, King suggests, one must maintain one’s faith even in the face of hopelessness.

King shares his own despair with his listeners, acknowledging the hopelessness that many among them may feel. Not only has his audience been living with horrific racism—segregation, police brutality, and widespread disenfranchisement, to name a few examples—but also many activists have faced specific demoralizations while trying to make change. Some members of the audience have been beaten, insulted, or jailed in pursuit of justice, while other activists have been killed. In the face of all this “unearned suffering,” it’s not surprising that members of the audience might despair—but King urges his listeners to see their unearned suffering as “redemptive.” In this way, King compares his audience to Christ; just as Christ suffered on the cross to redeem mankind, civil rights activists suffer through insult and injury to redeem future generations, sparing them the suffering that King’s generation has felt. So King is suggesting that suffering shouldn’t lead his audience to despair—instead, with a little faith, suffering can be a source of hope.

As another way to combat despair, King shares the dreams that he has for America’s future, evoking a nation defined by racial harmony and equal justice. Sharing these dreams not only makes the future towards which the movement is striving seem more concrete, but it also encourages the audience to remember their own dreams for themselves and for the nation, helping them to remain focused and motivated. As King spells out his dreams, he associates them with faith, both religious and secular. Among the six dreams that he lays out, the final one is explicitly Biblical, referencing a passage in Isaiah. He says that his dream is for “every valley [to] be exalted” and “every hill and mountain [to] be made low,” for “rough places” to be made smooth and “crooked places” made “straight.” These are metaphors for equality and justice, showing that all who are low (“valleys”) will be uplifted (“exalted”) and everything unjust (“crooked”) will be made right. By invoking the goals of the civil rights movement through a passage from Isaiah, King is explicitly grounding his cause in Scripture, just as he has also grounded it in America’s founding documents. The message here is that God is on the side of the movement.

But as King winds down his speech, he repeatedly invokes a “faith” that’s not explicitly religious. “This is the faith that I go back to the South with,” he says, meaning both his Christian faith and his faith that his specific dreams of equality and justice will soon come true. In this way, he speaks simultaneously to all members of his audience: those within the Christian activist tradition of which King was a part, and those whose faith is purely secular. Regardless of the audience’s specific faith, King insists that it’s faith alone—whether that is faith in God or faith in the collective dreams of the movement—that will allow the movement to remain motivated and united. “With this faith,” he says, “we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Despite its religious overtones and undertones, the “I Have a Dream Speech” is something of a secular sermon. It preaches the gospel of freedom, equality, and justice, insists that suffering on behalf of others is powerful and worthwhile, and encourages listeners to keep their faith in the future of their nation no matter what obstacles they might face. With this tireless faith, King promises, the movement will realize their dreams.