A King among men

Watching parts of Martin Luther King's famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington (50 years ago today), I was struck by the extraordinary inner calm and quiet authority of the man. Plenty of other great speakers have seized the chance to impose their personality and the ego on the occasion (Kennedy included), but King's very carefully well worked words transcend such things, for what is in a sense, one of the greatest sermons in history.

The words still resonate today, something which his spiritual successor Barack Obama, may try to emulate but could never imitate.