American Dream

Alaina Woods

ENC 1102

Social Media

March 5, 2013 

Our Own American Dream

To begin with, the American Dream speaks for itself. It’s something that all Americans dream about, and people from different cultures as well. Specifically, a dream is more than often a great experience, and something someone wants to come true. The term American Dream justifies how Americans should live, and how beautiful their lives should be. According to James Adams’ book “The Epic of America” it was stated that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone”(214). Many people followed this quote up, in politics, civil rights, and even in everyday life.

            To begin with, the American Dream played a big part in civil rights and activists’ belief on it. There was a black quest for the American Dream around 1963, when the famous Dr. Martin Luther King was fighting for our rights. In his “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” he expressed how African Americans should be exposed to the American Dream as well as others. He stated that when (Freedom Riders) sat down at those lunch counters “they were standing up for what was best in the American Dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage.” An imprisoned King was responding to a statement by eight Atlanta clergymen, and he was fed up with the way African-Americans were treated. It’s granted that blacks deserve to experience the American Dream, and King was a firm believer in equality.

            I believe that the American Dream played a huge part in the Civil Rights. When the American Dream was brought about in 1931, it was referring to all Americans. Whether their color is black, white, or anything else this declaration referred to us all as equals. I think around the time Civil Rights movement came about, African-Americans were just fed up with the unfair way they were treated, and they never got to see the American Dream. Colored people don’t have equal opportunity, and there have been “dramatic shifts in social welfare”(Leadership Conference) which cause African Americans to “realize civil rights”(Leadership Conference). This is not deemed as the American Dream, and Human Rights have to been brought to the courts to enable blacks to live the American Dream as well.

            As mentioned before, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement. He fought for equality across the nation, and was very brave in everything he accomplished. Dr. King understood everyone’s beliefs, and dreams. He was a big believer in dreams, and is well known from his “I Have a Dream” speech. To Dr. King, the American Dream was a “dream yet unfulfilled”. He had hope that one day we would all live the American Dream. It’s true that in the past African-Americans were treated poorly, and not how the American Dream should have been. Even in the present, African-Americans are not given the American Dream. Granted, the American Dream is not just given to you. It’s something that is reached for, something that one sets goals for. Dr. King emphasized how important it was to follow all dreams, and that your dreams are meant to come true. The civil rights movement was a historic time period, and it ties in with the American Dream very tightly.

             The American Dream sounds so beautiful, but it is not a beautiful journey to get there. In most dreams, life seems to be better, and things seem easier. That’s how the American Dream should be, and that’s what people strive for. During the Civil Rights movement that’s what leaders, such as Dr. King strived for. When you struggle for things, such as rights and freedom, you try hard to get to a better place in reality. Many people have a dream they want to come true, and when you want something bad you fight for it. Many people look forward to their dream, and try hard to get it. The American Dream is something all Americans look forward to, and even people of different cultures. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, the significance of the American Dream was stressed and that’s why I look up to it in such a major way.

Works Cited

Adams, James. The Epic of America. 1931. Print

Saunders, Lee. “Martin Luther King Jr., the labor movement and the American dream” The Grio. January 16, 2012. March 4, 2013

Leadership Conference, “American Dream? American Reality! A Report on Race, Ethnicity, and the Law in the United States” The Leadership Conference. January 2009. March 4, 2013