NC State professor's film reveals MLK's iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech has origins in Rocky Mount

In celebration of Black History Month, a new documentary from an NC State professor explores the inspiration behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Through his research, Jason Miller found that King first uttered that historic refrain at a gym in Rocky Mount—nine months before the March on Washington. 

The origin of speech that sparked a movement changed a nation and eventually put Rocky Mount in the national spotlight.

In researching the origin of King's speech, Miller came across two never-before-seen photos of King delivering that speech in November 1962 at a Rocky Mount gym.

Miller said he was stunned to see the photos that were sent to him in the mail, amazed by how much information and history they hold. The photos were taken by J.B. Harren and preserved in the highest and most pristine quality as one of the few pieces of evidence from this incredible moment in Rocky Mount history. 

Miller said that the photos were one step away from ending up in the landfill.

The Booker T. Washington Gym, where the speech happened, still stands as a symbol of that moment in history. The actual recording of that speech was made public in 2015.

Rocky Mount resident Herbert Tillman was only 17 years old when he attended that historic event. Tillman is now in his 80s, but remembers that November night as if it were yesterday. 

“When Dr. Martin Luther King’s face showed, everything just got loud and cheering,” Tillman reminisced. “Everybody was so happy, and I was happy too.”

When asked about how that night impacted him, Tillman said it gave him hope. 

Miller spent more than a decade researching for this new documentary.

In that time, he discovered that King's “I Have A Dream” speech, and some of his sermons, were inspired by poet Langston Hughes, whom King considered a dear friend.

“Dr. King’s genius was to start with the poetry of Langston Hughes, then add it to the American dream, and finally, at the very end, make it also prophetic in this particular regard,” Miller said. 

Miller’s film documents the poetry of that speech and how it stands as a literary historic marker, while honoring Rocky Mount's place in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Poetry is where memory breathes,” Miller said. “When you repeat those lines, like ‘I dream a world,’ or in Dr. King’s phrasing, ‘I have a dream,’ people remember and hold onto it.”

Tillman and other Rocky Mount natives are featured in the new documentary, "Origin of the Dream." It will be screened later this year at Stanford University, where King delivered another Langston Hughes-inspired speech, “The Other America,” in April 1967.