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King originally thought the speech should be lower-key, since he was speaking to a broad audience about controversial themes. Check out the Detroit version of the speech here - it has a lot in common with the much more famous March on Washington version, but the rhetoric is a bit less soaring and the grievances a bit more specific.
And then there was the idea of King's "dream" for a nation undivided by racial tensions, which he had used in speeches throughout the previous year in cities like Detroit and Birmingham, Alabama. There was the image of a "bad check," representing America's failure to deliver on her promises of freedom to her black citizens. King himself was torn between two metaphors he liked, figuring he only had time for one. His advisers argued over which themes he should include. King had struggled with his speech, which was supposed to be kept to five minutes. "Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!" This bond of mutual inspiration and respect between King and Jackson came at a pivotal moment during the 1963 March on Washington. Even in moments when King felt discouraged, he would call Jackson on the phone just to hear her sing. Jackson was devoted to King, and accompanied him into the most hostile parts of the segregated South for rallies and demonstrations. Her voice became "the soundtrack of the civil rights movement," as NPR's Sonari Glinton put it. After that, she frequently accompanied King to perform at rallies and events. Shortly after meeting King at the National Baptist Convention in 1956, Jackson agreed to sing at a fundraising rally for the Montgomery bus boycott. She was also instrumental to the civil rights movement, especially as a good friend of King's.
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She mentored Aretha Franklin and Della Reese, and in 1961 was the first gospel singer to win a Grammy. Jackson, known as the Queen of Gospel, was a musical legend who helped bring gospel from church to mass audiences. Without Mahalia Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech might never have happened.