I Have A Dream Speech Analysis

Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister and a Civil Rights activist, became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is widely known for his speech that took place on 28 August 1963, “I Have a Dream.” This speech aimed toward the entire nation. King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice and for them all to stand up together for their rights. In this speech, King uses emotional and logical appeal to gain the audience's support. He applied many rhetorical devices to his speech to connect with the audience’s emotions, and to logically support his arguments.

Another appeal for pathos is King’s repetition and his reference to how African American people have no rights,

In 1963, minister and rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in front of Lincoln memorial to bring awareness to the unfairness of injustice for black people. King's speech was an effort to try and mandate the coming together of the black and white race and finally have the equality between us all be put into force for a free nation. As the speech left King’s mouth and entered 250,000 citizens ears, it left them to think about what point he was trying to make because he uses pathos, logos, and ethos.

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous civil rights activists in the history of the United States. He gave several important speeches and promoted non-violent protests. His most famous speech was “I Have A Dream”, around a quarter of a million patrons, black and white, attended this empowering speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The reason his speech was vastly successful in the movement against segregation and injustice was because of its repetitiveness.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader who fought with nonviolence against the inequalities the black community faced. After the 10th anniversary of King Jr.’s death, Cesar Chavez wrote an article about nonviolence resistance by using rhetorical choices such as diction, pathos, and allusion.

Like instruments in an orchestra being brought in one by one to a melody that fills the ears of its listeners and drives out any other thoughts, King then targets the white moderate population, the white voters. He tries to place this audience into the shoes of the black people by giving vivid descriptions of the trials they have been going through and invoke empathy in their hearts. He says: "When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your brothers and sisters at whim . . ." This statement brings up an issue every culture has had to deal with, death. Death in the American culture is one that is associated with loss and grief. King deftly imposes this loss on the shoulders of his white audience making it clear to them the pain the black people have been dealt.

Cesar Chavez was more towards farmworkers while Martin King Jr. was more towards the Civil Rights movement. Chavez was the person that organized farmworkers and fought to obtain better working conditions in the fields of California. His accomplishments changed the lives of millions of people. Fifty years later, and his influence is still felt today.

Martin Luther King Jr. is known throughout history as a symbol of protest and equality. His nonviolent strategies were effective in furthering the civil rights movement. Cesar Chavez, a labor union and civil rights advocate commends King’s actions. In his article, Chavez utilizes meticulous diction, rhetoric, and syntax to support his argument.

King urges the clergymen to support peaceful protests before years of oppression turn into violence. King emphasizes that anyone who is trapped has a burning desire to be free, for “oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” Similar to a bomb, these African Americans will soon emotionally explode, hurting both themselves and the people around them. King urges the clergymen to support the non-violent protests by exposing the threat of a violent confrontation. Furthermore, King additionally accentuates the idea of rebellion as he states, “the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself… something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be

On August 28th, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He spoke passionately for 17 minutes on his views about human equality for African Americans at one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in history. King played a major role in ending the segregation for African Americans. His rhetorical language left an impact on America. Through his use of appeals like ethos, logos, pathos, and other rhetorical techniques. He influenced Americans to believe in the notion that all men are created equal.

While what King refers to throughout his speech creates an emotion that spreads through the crowd, he realized the power of words and their effect on people. He uses “horror,” “distrust,” and “brutality,” to represent what their past and present consisted of. “Glory,” “hope,” and “dream,” are used in his speech to show what their future would be like after that day. King starts of the speech retelling why the audience is there, fighting for their rights, and

King creates an enforced emotional appeal to the audience by using pathos, and he makes the audience feel empathy for the way that whites have treated non-whites for over a century.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."(Martin Luther King Jr, 1963).

It is a government’s job to protect the people’s three unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The United States was built on the idea that everyone is created equal and are deserving of their rights. When a government fails to give specific social groups equal rights, one must protest peacefully in order to effectively attain freedom.