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From the ArchivesTransforming token integration into good faith: Martin Luther King talks to Czechoslovak Radio

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” The unforgettable words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., delivered on August 28 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The speech, addressed to a crowd of a quarter of a million, was a defining moment in the American civil rights movement, and its echoes reached as far as communist Eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia the civil rights movement had already aroused considerable interest, and not just because of the pleasure that the regime took in pointing to America’s shortcomings; Czechoslovak Radio's correspondent in the United States, Karel Kyncl, had already interviewed Dr King in March of that same year. Here is a short extract from the interview, where Dr King has just been outlining the progress made so far in ending segregation: More