Forty-six years ago a man had a dream today.

He had a dream that there would one day be an America where his children and your children could be children. Where they could grow up like children and not like slaves. Where they did not live in fear as they did on this day in 1955 when one of their children was taken and brutally murdered. He had a dream that one day America would stand up in the face of its own prejudice, that it would instead follow its own dream as a country.

Forty-six years ago a man stood on the Washington Mall, not one mile from my eighth-floor office in Washington, DC and he spoke of the fierce urgency of now. "We cannot be satisfied," he said. "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."



Forty-five years later, a man lived that dream. He stood at the Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado and accepted the nomination of the Democratic party for the Presidency of the United States. In Denver, Colorado he stood on a mountaintop.



Yes we can, he shouted. Yes we can.

And while we stood there, millions of Americans and watched the first man of his color stand and tell us that work still needed to be done, we understood. We understand that he had a dream too. We understand that he had the same dream. Division still exists, whether it be by race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or religion. But he had a dream. The things that unite us are far greater than the things that divide us. Yes we can.

He had a dream that one day his two daughters will live in a country where they can do what he has done. That his two daughters can look at their father and say he was just another step in an enduring journey that led to America being the beacon of hope in the world. Just another step in the perfection of a country that stood on principle instead of monarchy. Yes, we can, he said.

One year later he has won that election and taken that post. By virtue of him standing there millions of people who never before believed they could lead are leading. Millions of children relegated to careers as NBA stars and entertainers now want to be President. Millions of young adults and college graduates are changing the world and not just dreaming.

Never underestimate the ability of a small group of dedicated people to change the world. It's the only thing that ever has. But there's still work to do. Imagine if there was a large group of dedicated people and then a larger one. Imagine if a country said, "we've had enough," and decided to change. Imagine if America looked at the Man in the Mirror. Now change the world.

He had a dream today. And he had a dream. And he did not die in vain.


"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears - Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream."