![]() ![]() It was around this time that the two reached a handshake deal for Motown to record King’s Washington speech the following week.īut while King and Gordy were reaching an arrangement, the march’s organizers were forging a deal of their own. In August, Gordy traveled to an SCLC benefit concert in Atlanta to meet King and present him with a copy of the album. The Detroit speech would be Motown’s first foray into both spoken-word recording and the civil rights movement more broadly. While now overshadowed by the March on Washington, the speech King gave at Cobo Hall includes the refrain “I have a dream” in cascading waves of conviction, presaging what would become one of the most enduring lines of the 20th century. An estimated 125,000 people attended the rally, which raised money for the SCLC and would come to be known as the Walk to Freedom. So in June 1963, King allowed Motown to record a speech in Detroit. In 1967 he spoke to black DJs at a convention, telling them, “School integration is much easier now that they share a common music, a common language, and enjoy the same dances.” His resilience-and the national coverage the protests garnered-led to the legal, if not de facto, desegregation of the city, and solidified his place on the program at the August event.īut as soul music became institutionalized, King would come to see how it might be useful to him. ![]() While in jail there, King wrote his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which quickly became an essential treatise for civil rights. In Birmingham, Ala., in the spring of 1963, King led a series of protests against segregation that were brutally met by attack dogs, fire hoses and arrests. The speech’s journey to its place in history began months before the March on Washington. Crucially, the recording, which is also slated for rerelease for audiences today, challenges long-held notions about that day-and its story reveals King’s struggles over how best to share his words with the world. Spectators on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial chime in audibly as King proceeds through his remarks, making listeners feel as if they’re 10 ft. In its recording, King’s clarion voice carries without the distracting echo picked up by inferior attempts to capture it. The experience uses original audio, available in rare fidelity thanks to an unlikely source: Motown Records. TIME is releasing The March, a virtual reality experience that takes participants back to that day in August 1963. But this month, there will be a new way to hear the speech. ![]()
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