I Have a Dream8230;

Exactly 45 years ago, on August 28, 1963, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Dr Martin Luther King Jr gave the speech that came to be recognised as the greatest American public address of the 20th century, and one of the loftiest in history. 8220;I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed8230; that all men are created equal8217;,8221; he told a gathering of over 200,000 American civil rights supporters. 8220;I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character8230; I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.8221;

8230;Dream Realised

On Wednesday night in Denver, first-time senator Barack Hussein Obama, who defeated the first family of Democratic politics with a stirring call for change, was nominated to be the 44th president of the United States, the first African American to become a major party nominee for the White House.

At least five veterans of Dr King8217;s 1963 march traveled to Denver to watch Obama being nominated, among them, Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the last man alive of the 10 who spoke that day in Washington. 8220;We8217;ve had disappointments since then, but8230; when people say nothing has changed, I feel like saying, 8216;Come walk in my shoes8217;,8221; he said. Many veterans of the march will on Thursday night watch on TV an event they would have considered impossible not just in 1963, but perhaps in 1983, or 1993 as well.