To start with on your prejudice unit you will be focusing mainly on MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech - but before we have a look at the speech it's important that we have an understanding of the America in which MLK lived.
Freedom, democracy and equality for all...? The (in)famous rallying cries of the United States of America - the land of the free. Yet were these ideals of the "American Dream" actually actively practised in MLK's USA? No.
MLK lived in an America rife with racism, where the black man and the white man lived completely seperate lives. He lived in a USA that actively encouraged segregation of the races so that black-people and white-people were effectively banned from sharing:
- Bus station waiting rooms and ticket windows
- Railroad cars
- Restaurants
- Schools and public parks
- Toilets
- Swimming pools
- Cemeteries
- Drinking fountains
They also suffered from something called disenfranchisement in the Southern States - rules that were put in place to make it extremely difficult for black people to exercise their democratic right.
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