In 2013 Gary Younge published ‘The Speech’ (Guardian Books), a meditation on King’s most famous “I have a dream” speech. Fifty years on it is clear that in eliminating segregation - not racism but formal, codified, explicit discrimination - the civil rights movement delivered the last significant moral victory in America for which there is still a consensus. The speech's appeal endures because it remains the most eloquent, poetic, unapologetic and public articulation of that victory.

Marking the passing of fifty years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, Gary Younge reflects on King’s life and legacy, and how King’s nonviolent practice relates to the anti-racist struggles of today.

About the Speaker

Gary Younge is an author, broadcaster and editor-at-large for The Guardian, based in London. He also writes a monthly column, Beneath the Radar, for the Nation magazine and is the Alfred Knobler Fellow for The Nation Institute. He has written five books: Another Day in the Death of America, A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives; The Speech, The Story Behind Martin Luther King’s Dream; Who Are We?, And Should it Matter in the 21st century; Stranger in a Strange Land, Travels in the Disunited States and No Place Like Home, A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South. He has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.