I Have a Dream: Repression Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph.Sentence)
Quote #1
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. (3.1-2)
This metaphor compares segregation and discrimination to slavery, using the imagery of chains. MLK states the message straight up: "the Negro" (African Americans) is not free. Slavery has been replaced by more indirect forms of repression. Jim Crow was a sneak attack on freedom—and it wasn't even that sneaky.
Quote #2
And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. (7.4)
"Business as usual" is a phrase that Barack Obama would later borrow for speeches during his first presidential campaign. The phrase implies that repression is the norm in American society. In fact, the original title of "I Have a Dream" was "Normalcy—Never Again." For African Americans, being repressed was a daily problem.
Quote #3
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. (7.5)
This is another example of MLK arguing that his ideas are not new, but long overdue. Technically, the Fourteenth Amendment did protect everyone's citizenship rights. But Jim Crow laws found ways to limit African Americans' rights to vote, move about freely, and marry with white people. Does any of that sound like free citizenship to you?
Quote #4
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating for whites only. (9.7)
Here, MLK is referencing segregated restaurants and other public venues. These forms of discrimination were examples of average people participating in the repression of African Americans. That's right: you too can make a negative difference.
Quote #5
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. (10.1-3)
MLK offers encouragement to people who have been harassed by police, arrested, mugged…sadly, the list goes on. The resistors of the Civil Rights Movement were not going to budge easily. Some of the basic infrastructure of society—schools, jails, police forces, public transportation, voting booths—were deployed to punish protesters. Repression means being held down by the powers that be—also known as The Man.