I think that if we can
choose one sentence of this speech that represents its main, central claim, it would be the
following sentence from the sixth paragraph:
This
sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an
invigorating autumn of freedom and equality1963 is not an end but a beginning.
Prior to this, Dr. King has established that the discontent felt
by African Americans at this time in history is absolutely "legitimate" and warranted
by the treatment they have received at the hands of white Americans. He has given several
reasons for the legitimacy of African Americans' dissatisfaction with their rights in a United
States of America that promises equal rights to all people but does not actually enforce them:
it oppresses racial minorities, especially black people, through economic privation, a lack of
social mobility, segregation and Jim Crow laws, discrimination, police brutality, and more. He
explains that African Americans are merely...
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