Glasgow City Council hears reading of “I Have a Dream” from local resident

GLASGOW, Ky. – At Glasgow’s City Council meeting on Monday, a citizen shared with the board a custom rendition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech themed after the city of Glasgow and the surrounding area.

“We have come to the City Hall of Glasgow to cash a check… a check that will give us, upon demand, the riches of equality and the security of justice,” Barrett Wright says.

Wright, a Glasgow High School alumni, says he shared because he’s inspired by Dr. King, and believes he would be disappointed in our world today.

“A lot of the dream still hasn’t made it to fruition… and I believe if Martin Luther King was still living today, especially in our current political climate, he would be highly disappointed in how it seems like we seem to keep going backwards, with what’s going on in our world,” he says.

Wright hopes citizens that came out to the meeting take that local connection away, while also retaining the core message of Dr. King’s dream.

“When people hear that speech and they hear their cities, their towns, their streets that they grew up in, parks that they play in… that speech becomes a little more personal to them. We’re not from Mississippi, we’re not from Georgia, right? We’re from Kentucky… small town, Glasgow, Kentucky. We’re more familiar with the surrounding counties,” Wright says.

“From the winding hills of Robinson Court, let freedom ring from the backwoods of Sawdust Trail. Let freedom ring from Bunche Avenue all the way down to Back Street. Let freedom ring all the way across town to McGraw. Let freedom ring from Gorin Park to Twyman Park… but not only that, let freedom ring all the way to Park City. Let freedom ring all the way to Henrytown. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Monroe County. From every mountainside, let freedom ring,” he said as part of the speech.

In the end, that message would be the world coming together as one:

“Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join in hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last,'” Wright says.