Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial one hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. At the beginning of his speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. brings up the fact that he is speaking one hundred years after the signing of the proclamation, and he describes how life is for African Americans one hundred years later. The examples show that life is not better for African Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. says that African Americans are still not free in America. African Americans are still held down by segregation and discrimination in America. African Americans live in poverty while everyone else in the country prospers. African Americans are pushed to the outside of society and it feels like African Americans are exiled in their own lands.
Below is the paragraph you are referring to:
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. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
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