Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at Cobo Hall in June 1963. Credit: Courtesy of Virtual Motor City

In June 1963, a crowd of 125,000 took to the streets of Detroit in the Walk to Freedom march that eventually concluded at Cobo Hall. While at Cobo, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a rousing 30-minute speech — an early take on what would become his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington D.C. for the March on Civil Rights weeks later.

Being that it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, here’s a copy of the speech he gave in Cobo (via WDET’s Detroit Today). The entire text of his speech is available here, and check out photos from the Detroit march here.  

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Ryan Felton was born in 1990 and spent the majority of his childhood growing up in Livonia. In 2009, after a short stint at Eastern Michigan University, he moved to Detroit where he has remained ever since....

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