When the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington is observed this weekend, inevitably attention will be focused on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech. We’ve heard the speech so many times that we know the words:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Undoubtedly, the media will focus on that passage while others, such as Jesse Jackson, will remind demonstrators that in that same speech, Dr. King told his audience that, “America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

While that was one of Dr. King’s greatest speeches, a more didactic one was Dr. King’s last one, the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, delivered on the eve of his assassination in Memphis.

“I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph [Abernathy] has said, so often, scratching where they didn’t itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. And that’s what this whole thing is about.”

He had a word for the Black church, one our most powerful institutions.

“It’s alright to talk about ‘long white robes over yonder,’ in all of its symbolism,” Dr. King said. “But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s alright to talk about ‘streets flowing with milk and honey,’ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s alright to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. That is what we have to do.”

To create more respectful relationships, Dr. King reminded us: “Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal.”

He recognized our collective economic strength, which has increased dramatically over the past 40 years. According to the most recent statistics compiled by the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth, Black buying power, which was $318 billion in 1990, stood at $688 billion in 2002 and is projected to grow to $921 billion in 2008, an increase of 189 percent over 18 years.

The overall buying power of African-Americans, Asians and Native Americans is expected to exceed $1.5 trillion in 2008, according to the University of Georgia. Hispanics, which can belong to any race, will have an annual spending power of slightly more than $1 billion in 2008.

Dr. King explained, “We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles, we don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, ‘God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda—fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

Dr. King directly challenged African-Americans.

“…We’ve gotten to strengthen our Black institutions,” he said. “I call upon you to take your money out of the [White] banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a bank-in movement in Memphis… We have six or seven Black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an ‘insurance-in.’”

Dr. King summed up his strategy succinctly: “We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts.”

Instead of focusing so much on Dr. King’s dream, which we are not even close to realizing, we need to focus on what he said while he was awake.

Surprisingly, the focus on demanding what movement leaders call “economic justice” has waned in recent years. If we spend too much time this week dissecting Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, we will miss the larger point of self-empowerment.