preview

Martin Luther King I Have A Dream Speech Allusion

Decent Essays

The Dream of King Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech on August 28, 1963 to a crowd of around 250,000 people, black and white. The “I Have a Dream Speech” was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In this speech, King emphasizes the unequal treatment of blacks and whites and calls for the end of segregation. King was a Christian preacher and he used biblical allusion to show that segregation should be ended. He used verses from both the New and Old Testament to show this. An example from the New Testament is ,”little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (para. 21). This is a form of the verse Matthew 12:48-50. With this verse he is showing that he is speaking of ending segregation between blacks and whites. An example from The Old Testament is “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (para. 12). This is Amos 5:24. King is speaking of what he wishes to happen, and until this …show more content…

The quote he uses is ,”Five score years ago” (para. 1). This is an allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s speech,The Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln is a very symbolic person for the blacks because he is also the person to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the blacks from slavery. This is a climaxing point for the black population because it is the point of where they became free citizens, and could not be owned by whites. “They were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’” (para. 3). This is showing that even American government documents do not state anything related to black men not having rights. These documents are showing that blacks should be treated

Get Access