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Dr. Martin Luther King 's I Have A Dream Speech

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Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has served as inspiration to multiple generations in the 52 years since his words were spoken. Individuals and groups have rallied behind his message of equality and peace and quoted this speech countless times in an attempt to further Dr. King’s dream of bringing racial injustice to an end. In this speech, which was delivered as the culmination of the March for Jobs in 1962, Dr. King addressed nearly 250,000 people to bring awareness to the injustices facing black Americans at the time his speech was given. Much credit is given to Martin Luther King, Jr. and to this speech in particular, for propelling the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s forward and attaining some of its goals.
The speech begins with Dr. King establishing his ethos, a way of convincing his audience of his credibility, by connecting himself with President Abraham Lincoln. He does this first by referencing the opening line of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered during the US Civil War in which Lincoln fought with the Union for abolishing slavery. King then goes on to directly cite the former president by referring to Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, noting that in the one hundred years since it’s signing the country had not delivered to its African American citizens what the Emancipation Proclamation had promised them. It is also worth mentioning that Dr. King’s speech is delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,

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