On August 28, 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr addressed a crowd of nearly 250,000 gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the Great March on Washington, and delivered a speech that would become one of the most well-known in American history. Freedom’s Ring is an animated, annotated site that offers a more in-depth look at that day.
On this beautifully designed little site, you can listen to the audio of King’s “I Have a Dream” appeal for human rights presented with the original written text. The man was powerful, peaceful, and one hell of a public speaker. But in addition to the speech, Freedom’s Ring gives you more context, in the form of links that go into more detail about particular parts of the speech, sections that were altered in the moment, and historical “threads” about his life and times — as well as beautiful illustrations.
The project was commissioned by Stanford’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, and represents an evolution of The Knotted Line — a collaboration between artist Evan Bissell and Erik Loyer, creative director at The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, using the Scalar publishing platform as a means to organise a ton of info in a way that’s interactive without being overwhelming.
It’s organised as an epic scroll, timed with illustrations by Bissell that morph along with the script — some of which is hyperlinked to additional info of King and his contemporaries. For a speech that’s now so deeply familiar, it’s fascinating to follow along and see the phrases that he cut or changed in the moment. Head over to Freedom’s Ring to explore it on your own. [Freedom’s Ring]