MLK "I have a Bream?"

The scene is Washington DC 28th August 1968. Before the nation's most revered monument to freedom, the Lincoln memorial, a hastily built speaker's platform has been erected. A man slowly climbs the rickety steps of the platform and steps up to the microphones awaiting his historic words.

What was said next, to the estimated million strong crowd and indeed the world, has become the stuff of legend.Dr Martin Luther King, a southern preacher and civil rights leader, announced to the world "I have a dream." and with those historic words he forced home the final nail into the coffin of racial segregation.

But it could have all been so different if Dr King had delivered the speech he actually intended to give on that humid August day.
Researchers from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington have recently discovered the hand written early drafts of the now famous speech, and what they have found may surprise a few people.

Dr Edward Finedecker, the man who discovered the drafts, told me of king's original intention to speak of his passion for keeping fish and of his excitement in adding a new specimen to his growing collection.Dr Finedecker told me "You can clearly see in the early drafts of the speech that Dr King intended to talk at length on his love of fish and on the proper way to set up a new aquarium. The original first line was intended to be 'I have a Bream.'"

After talking to Dr Finedecker about his amazing discovery I telephoned the Rev Jesse Jackson, who was part of King's entourage that day, and asked him about King's intention to lecture the crowd on correct aquarium procedure, the Reverend told me, "Yes it's true that he originally wanted to speak about his newly acquired Bream; but we managed at the last minute to persuade him to speak on civil rights instead. He wasn't happy about it because he wasn't really interested in the topic and found politics very dull."

So it seems that one mans preoccupation with fish could, if left unchecked, have led to the failure of the whole civil rights movement and the continued oppression of a people yearning for freedom.