The woman behind "I have a dream"

Every year on this day, I make a practice of listening to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. It's a small way to celebrate the words of a man revered for his moral vision — and acknowledged as one of history's greatest speakers.

But this year, I'm expanding my ritual to include a woman. According to historians, the iconic words "I have a dream" came from Prathia Hall.

There's a clarity of vision and intensity of moral outrage combined, with a remarkable vocal range, that makes her delivery unique and unforgettable.

Hall was a Baptist minister and activist known for her oratorical power, which she put to use at civil rights meetings and on the pulpit.

Just take a listen to some of her sermons — you'll find them on YouTube. I think you'll agree she's one of the most extraordinary speakers of modern times. Her delivery is mesmerizing. She expresses a certain clarity of vision and intensity of moral outrage — combined with a remarkable vocal range — that makes her delivery unique and unforgettable.

Here's the story behind "I have a dream."

One early morning in September 1962, Hall and other activists watched while the Mount Olive Baptist Church in southwest Georgia burned to the ground. The church had been the site of numerous civil rights gatherings and voter registration meetings, making it a target for the Ku Klux Klan, which was conducting a reign of terror in Terrell County.

King once said about her gift for oratory: "Prathia Hall is the one woman on the platform I would not want to follow."

A short time after the fire, MLK came to Terrell County to speak at a commemorative service. That's where he heard Prathia Hall.

She was a young college student and a volunteer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and she was invited to preach that day. In her sermon, she used the hopeful phrase, "I have a dream," in repetition, over and over.

King was struck by the rhetorical power of her words, and before long, he was incorporating the words into his own sermons. He used it in a number of speeches —?including at the "Walk to Freedom" march in Detroit, and then again in the "March to Washington" speech in Washington DC.

Hall had grown up in Philadelphia, the daughter of the Reverend Berkeley Hall, a Baptist minister with a passionate commitment to racial justice. She was nurtured in what she would later describe as "Freedom Faith" — the belief that she was a child of God.

She went on to become a Baptist minister, and eventually the pastor of her father's church, Mount Sharon Baptist Church. She later joined the faculty at the Boston University School of Theology and was known as a "womanist theologian," focused on the experience and perspectives of Black women, especially African-American women.

It's not clear whether King every acknowledged his debt to Hall, but he once said about her gift for oratory: "Prathia Hall is the one woman on the platform I would not want to follow."

Hall died in 2002 at the age of 62. She is buried at the Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia alongside her daughter Simone, who predeceased her by ten years.

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My name is Dana Rubin, and I help women put their ideas into the world powerfully and persuasively. I’m the founder of?The Speaking While Female Speech Bank , and the editor of the forthcoming?"Speaking While Female: 50?Extraordinary?Speeches by American Women"?(Real Clear | Spring 2022).

I'm opening up a discussion about the role of women’s public speech in history and invite you to take part. We need to hear the best ideas from everyone to address our toughest problems — so let's improve this world together.