Comments About the Declaration and the "I Have a Dream" speech

As I was reading the Declaration of Independence, I could not help but wonder why the writers of the Declaration were so blind to the fact that their slaves were suffering from the same type of oppression that they endured at the hands of the British king. The declaration said that "all men were created equal" and were blessed with the "unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," yet this was not so. This continued to not be the case hundreds of years later during the Civil Rights Movement. I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. King when he said in his "I Have a Dream" speech that the Declaration of Independence was a "promissory note to which every American was to fall heir" (regardless of race or gender) and that African Americans were given a "bad check marked "insufficient funds". Watching the "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety brought me to tears. I usually do not think about all of the injustices that my ancestors endured, but watching that speech made me realize how far African Americans have come. It was mind boggling to be sitting in my dorm room at such a prestigious institution as CMC with my non-black roommate during the presidency of America's first African American president, while watching a speech from only forty-seven years ago that urged for equality and social justice for African American people.