Behind the dream : the making of the speech that transformed a nation

"I have a dream." When those words were spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, the crowd stood, electrified, as Martin Luther King, Jr. brought the plight of African Americans to the public consciousness and firmly established himself as one of the greatest orators of all time. Behind the Dream is a thrilling, behind-the-scenes account of the weeks leading up to the great event, as told by Clarence Jones, co-writer of the speech and close confidant to King. Jones was there, on the road, collaborating with the great minds of the time, and hammering out the ideas and the speech that would shape the civil rights movement and inspire Americans for years to come.

• Prologue
• Souls Beyond Measure p. xi
• Chapter 1 History in the Making p. 1
• Randolph's Legacy p. 3
• Home Away from Home p. 9
• Spin Before There Was Spin p. 15
• Divided We Stood p. 21
• Plagued by Doubt p. 27
• The Celebrity Delegation p. 32
• No Turning Back p. 42
• Chapter 2 Tuesday p. 49
• Early Signs, Early Warnings p. 51
• A Group of Lobbyists p. 54
• Memory and Metaphor p. 66
• "To Counsel with My Lord" p. 77
• Chapter 3 Wednesday p. 81
• Dawn Reconnaissance p. 83
• So Tired of All the Exploitation p. 89
• How Do You Know You're Making History? p. 92
• 'Buked and Scorned p. 95
• Preparation: The Speech, Part One p. 104
• The Mechanics of Trust p. 113
• Instinct: The Speech, Part Two p. 115
• Electricity in the Air p. 118
• Saving the Best for Last p. 125
• Chapter 4 A Strike of Lightning, Then Fifty Years of Rolling Thunder p. 127
• Putting a Name to It p. 129
• Why Did "I Have a Dream" Capture the World? p. 134
• Breaking the Records p. 138
• Out from the Gloomy Past p. 144
• Chapter 5 In the Present, Tense p. 151
• Welcome to Funtown p. 153
• Money Makes the World Go 'Round p. 159
• The Shepherdless Flock p. 168
• Epilogue
• Dream On, March On... p. 181
• Acknowledgments p. 189
• Notes p. 191
• Index p. 199