Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the central figures of the 20th century. Born in Atlanta in 1929 into an educated black family, his childhood was heavily influenced by Southern religion and racial inequality. He earned a doctorate from Boston University on the subject of man's relationship to God in 1955, before graduating from seminary in 1951 (Peake). “I Have a Dream” is one of the most important speeches of the twentieth century and is at the center of civil rights literature. While other writings of the time raised the same issues plaguing the black community, this speech became a rallying cry for the movement. “I Have a Dream” is more than a speech, it is a piece of American history in its own right and as such is a necessary part in any study of American literature. King covered many themes in the speech, but the central theme is that a nation divided by inequality and oppression fails all its citizens. The principle common to all his speeches, nonviolent resistance, is also present but is not the central point. The first half of the speech pushes this central theme into the mind of the listener and reader, while the second half, the parts “I have a dream” and “let Freedom resonate,” presents a vision of what a nation free from segregation and it would resemble discrimination. The speech begins with metaphors that speak to that point. The Founding Fathers of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence wrote a letter of credit to all Americans in which they “guaranteed the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”” (King 2710). The nation's failure to fulfill that promise is the central theme of passages two through four. This is expressed with lines l...... in the center of the paper...... May 2014.King, Martin L., Jr. "I Have a Dream." 1963. Heath's Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paolo Lauter. 6th ed. vol. E. Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 2710-713. Press. Contemporary period: from 1945 to today. "Marxist criticism". Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995): 175-179. Literary Reference Center Plus. Network. May 11, 2014.Peake, Thomas R. "Martin Luther King, Jr." Philosophers of the World and Their Works (2000): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. Network. May 11, 2014. Watkins Harper, Frances E. "The Politics of Aunt Chloe." 1872. Heath's Anthology of American Literature. By Paul Lauter. 6th ed. vol. C. Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 645. Print. Late 19th century: 1865-1910. Weinman, Jaime J. "What Was Lost in the Dream." Maclean's 126.34 (2013): 1. Academic research completed. Network. 07 May 2014.