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A Place to Land

 A book I love is "A Place to Land," which is the history of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.


The book seems to be targeted at middle-school students--students who certainly know what it's like to be unable to complete a writing assignment.

We begin with MLK fighting to draft words for the March on Washington (1963). It's not difficult to *start* a draft, but it's difficult to end. "You're circling above the trees, and you're searching, searching for a place to land." MLK gathers many advisors, and he listens--"one mark of a great person is the ability to listen"--and some ideas pop out. Talk about jobs. Talk about how we have been handed a bad check; America has given us a bad check. Talk about economic justice.

The book shows how MLK looked for alliteration and for rhyming *within* words--these grace notes made simple sentences memorable.

But the big surprise is this. MLK stood before the Lincoln Monument, and he actually struggled. The speech wasn't really taking off. It's Mahalia Jackson who called out, "Tell them about the dream." And at this moment, MLK *abandoned his script* and *improvised* these words:

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.


We sometimes just assume the words were crafted and shaped, but in fact, they seem to be a product of divine inspiration.

After MLK galvanizes his listeners, he meets with the trickster JFK, and then he becomes a kind of otherworldly force, powering John Lewis, Shirley Chisholm, and Barack Obama.

The writer wisely chooses just two days in MLK's life to tell a tight, dramatic story. We don't have to wade through details of the birth, details of the elementary-school years. Dramatic images of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and of "armed soldiers patrolling Constitution Avenue" accompany Wittenstein's smart text.

Just an unusual, canny piece of writing--and as interesting for adults as it is for kids.






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