BBC to air full recital with passages read by Dalai Lama and Malala Yousafzai for 50th anniversary of civil rights address
BBC Radio 4 is to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, a seminal event in the US civil rights movement, with a full recital including passages read by modern-day human rights campaigners including the Dalai Lama and the mother of Stephen Lawrence.
The speech will be recreated in its entirety using audio of King's original delivery, interwoven with lines recorded by figures associated with human rights campaigning including Doreen Lawrence, Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for going to school, and Nelson Mandela's granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela.
Radio 4 and the BBC World Service will broadcast the speech on Wednesday, 28 August, the 50th anniversary of King's recital on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, speaking to an estimated crowd of more than 200,000 civil rights activists taking part in the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. King's voice will open and close the BBC recreation of the speech.
The recording will feature contributions from US congressman John Lewis, who also addressed the Washington crowd on 28 August 1963; singer-songwriter Joan Baez, another leading figure in the American civil rights movement, and writer Maya Angelou, a co-ordinator for King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Other contributors will include the Dalai Lama; Nobel laureates John Hume, Shirin Ebadi, Muhammad Yunus and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia; Mary Robinson, former UN high commissioner for human rights and first female president of Ireland; Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean-American writer and human rights campaigner; Wei Jingsheng, the Chinese democracy campaigner; Indian peace activist Satish Kumar; and Maestro Abreu of the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar.
Gwyneth Williams, the Radio 4 controller, said: "Martin Luther King's words constitute one of the most passionate political statements of the 20th century, a source of inspiration in the quest for freedom in so many different countries around the world.
"I am delighted that Radio 4 is able to bring the whole speech to a global audience for the first time since 1963. I'm also thrilled that we have managed to gather such a distinguished host of contributors to mark the 50th anniversary."
Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford University and editor of the King Papers, will introduce the speech with a personal recollection of his involvement in events at the Lincoln Memorial the day the speech was delivered.
I Have a Dream will air at 9am (GMT) on Radio 4 and 2.30pm on the BBC World Service. It will be accompanied by a specially commissioned slideshow on the Radio 4 website as well as personal reflections offered by some of the contributors. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
BBC Radio 4 is to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, a seminal event in the US civil rights movement, with a full recital including passages read by modern-day human rights campaigners including the Dalai Lama and the mother of Stephen Lawrence.
The speech will be recreated in its entirety using audio of King's original delivery, interwoven with lines recorded by figures associated with human rights campaigning including Doreen Lawrence, Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for going to school, and Nelson Mandela's granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela.
Radio 4 and the BBC World Service will broadcast the speech on Wednesday, 28 August, the 50th anniversary of King's recital on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, speaking to an estimated crowd of more than 200,000 civil rights activists taking part in the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. King's voice will open and close the BBC recreation of the speech.
The recording will feature contributions from US congressman John Lewis, who also addressed the Washington crowd on 28 August 1963; singer-songwriter Joan Baez, another leading figure in the American civil rights movement, and writer Maya Angelou, a co-ordinator for King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Other contributors will include the Dalai Lama; Nobel laureates John Hume, Shirin Ebadi, Muhammad Yunus and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia; Mary Robinson, former UN high commissioner for human rights and first female president of Ireland; Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean-American writer and human rights campaigner; Wei Jingsheng, the Chinese democracy campaigner; Indian peace activist Satish Kumar; and Maestro Abreu of the Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar.
Gwyneth Williams, the Radio 4 controller, said: "Martin Luther King's words constitute one of the most passionate political statements of the 20th century, a source of inspiration in the quest for freedom in so many different countries around the world.
"I am delighted that Radio 4 is able to bring the whole speech to a global audience for the first time since 1963. I'm also thrilled that we have managed to gather such a distinguished host of contributors to mark the 50th anniversary."
Clayborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford University and editor of the King Papers, will introduce the speech with a personal recollection of his involvement in events at the Lincoln Memorial the day the speech was delivered.
I Have a Dream will air at 9am (GMT) on Radio 4 and 2.30pm on the BBC World Service. It will be accompanied by a specially commissioned slideshow on the Radio 4 website as well as personal reflections offered by some of the contributors. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
