‘I have a dream’, the King of speeches

THEY were the words that helped to define an era – and still resonate today.

Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech has been crowned the most inspirational of all time. The American civil rights leader’s address won 45 per cent of the vote in a British survey.

It was delivered on August 28, 1963, at a march in Washington DC, and called for equal civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.

The speech had an important role in helping America’s 1964 Civil Rights Act to be passed.

In the survey of the most powerful speeches of all time, Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech came second with 42 per cent. The 1940 address aimed to counter the jubilant reaction to the Dunkirk evacuation and remind the public that the Battle of Britain was about to begin. His later speech to the Commons, with its first reference to our heroic RAF pilots as the ‘few’, was number four.

Also on the list, according to the research by the insights agency Perspectus Global, was Nelson Mandela’s 1964 address, ‘Prepared to die’, at 20 per cent. He made it while in court facing the death penalty for sabotage, furthering communism and aiding foreign powers.

The late Queen’s 2020 ‘We will meet again’ speech, a rare broadcast to rally the nation in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, received 16 per cent.

Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 address at the Tory Conference, in which she declared ‘The lady’s not for turning!’ was the favourite of 13 per cent.

Caitlin MacLean, of Perspectus Global, said: ‘It’s fascinating that a 60-year-old speech from the American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr is the one that moves Brits the most.’