Early one morning in 1963, before the big crowd gathered, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked by the reflecting pool. He was practicing his speech when he saw a small boy sitting alone with a torn notebook. “Why are you here so early?” Dr. King asked. “I came because I have a dream,” the boy said. He showed Dr. King his drawings: — kids of all colors playing together — a school where everyone was welcome — a world with no “you can’t sit here” “My teacher said dreams don’t change anything,” the boy whispered sadly. Dr. King knelt beside him. “Oh, but they do. Dreams are the first step to making things better.” The boy looked up. “Will you tell everyone your dream today?” Dr. King smiled. “Yes. Thanks to you—I will.” Later that day, as the boy stood in the crowd, Dr. King began his speech. Then he added something new, something he felt in his heart: “I have a dream…” And the boy smiled, because he knew a dream had just become a voice that the whole world would hear.
