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I Have A Dream And On The Mountaintop Analysis

Decent Essays

Although at first a reader may believe that Martin Luther King’s speeches I Have a Dream and On the Mountaintop are more alike than different, it is actually the opposite. While the themes of both are civil rights for Negros, the speeches themselves are quite different. I have a Dream in many ways sets the stage for the Civil Rights movement and peaceful protest, while On the Mountaintop, written almost five years later, describes the long and painful Civil Rights journey, thanking those who have joined in unity, and calling for people everywhere to act in the name of others. Both Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream and On the Mountaintop are historic, powerful speeches quoted whenever the topic of civil rights is discussed or studied, but I do wonder if people realize how truly different the purpose and content of each of speeches were at the time they were given.
I have a Dream given on August 28th, 1963, was a speech designed to outline the inconsistencies between the words and intent of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and the reality Negros were experiencing 100 years later. He called attention to the “promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” (MLK, 1963) This promise, per Martin Luther King was not fulfilled and it was time to remind America, through peaceful means, that justice was due for “all of God’s children.” (MLK, 1963) Martin Luther

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