Happy Thanksgiving
- Now Dr. King really is moving toward a denouement. He expresses how grateful he is to be here with his listeners, that is, both in Memphis and…alive.
- King recalls an incident at a book signing in 1958 (ten years before) when a mentally ill woman named Izola Curry stabbed him with a letter opener, almost fatally. Public service announcement: those things are sharp, folks.
- He was told by his doctors that the knife came so close to severing his aorta that if he had sneezed, he'd be dead right now.
- He also remembers all the well-wishes he received afterward from famous people like President Eisenhower, but he remembers most of all a letter from a white schoolgirl expressing her happiness that he didn't sneeze.
- And King says he's also happy he didn't sneeze, which, y'know. Makes sense. He explains why he's so happy to be alive by returning to what he said at the beginning of the speech: these are exciting times in human history. Freedom is on the march.
- And freedom has come a long way, as Dr. King reminds everyone, reciting a brief history of some important events in the Civil Rights Movement he would have missed if he'd been dead, including sit-ins, anti-segregation demonstrations around the South, the Freedom Rides, and, of course, his celebrated "I Have a Dream Speech" at the March on Washington.
- And he'd have missed this gathering in Memphis.