History App: Hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speech

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Speech (by TechnoSketch Apps) is really an iPhone Education app to improve your listening skills of the English language, but I’d call it a great History app as well. Since the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday is next week, what better way to reflect on this day than to see and hear the actual words spoken by this great Pastor, Activist and Leader — in his own recorded voice.

This History app contains his 2 most famous speeches: “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” For anyone not familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was a pioneer in the forefront of the Black/ African American Civil Rights Movement. Strong in his faith and American Ideology, he advocated equality (an end to racism) and quality of life (economically) based on wording stated in the US Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. He motivated people and led by example. His strong conviction, non-violent approach and ability to gather people collectively to tackle social and economical issues was his greatest ammunition.

You can experience Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches in this free History app that has taken each of his 2 speeches and has broken them down into easily digestible parts: 4/4 minute segments for “I Have a Dream” and 6/7-8 minute segments for “I’ve Been to The Mountaintop.” Aside from hearing Dr. King deliver is infamous speeches in his own words, you have the option to view the English subtitles, which show the caption text of the speech so that you can follow along word-for-word as the words are spoken. Personally, I like being able to see and hear the speech because it allows me to really absorb what is being said.

Because the main intent of this Education (History) app is to be a learning tool for non-English natives living in the US, and those “Doing business in English, studying abroad or living in English speaking countries” (according to the developer’s app description), there are a couple of other functions that come in handy for this. You’ll have all the usual audio functionality (stop, play, pause, rewind, and fast forward), along with 4 “Play Mode” types. This functionality allows you to listen to the speech segments in a variety of ways, at a continuous cycle or a couple of different pause lengths, that you can adjust in the Settings area.

There are ads in this free iPhone app but you barely notice them in the bottom of the screen. The overall graphics are kind of plain, but the user interface works nicely and is very practical for its intended purpose of listening, reading, and learning.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was truly an inspiring and motivating man that helped awaken the consciousness of a nation and moved us in a direction that changed the course of American History. On April 3, 1968; in Memphis, Tennessee, he delivered his last speech — which was 1 day before his untimely death. That “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” Speech was impactful and moved me to tears for so many reasons. Both of these eloquent, historical speeches in this (Eduction) History app are worth listening to.