Martin Luther King Jr.'s Speech 'I' Ve Been To The Mountaintop

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became a civil rights activist shortly after attaining his doctorate in theology from Boston University. He later went on to deliver one of the finest speeches in United States history on August 28, 1963 entitled “I Have a Dream.” Over 200,000 people arrived to hear King deliver this speech. King uses a number of rhetorical devices to accentuate his point such as metaphors, antitheses, as well as anaphora’s. In addressing the nation Dr. Martin Luther King Jr effectively uses the appeals of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to convince the audience to take action in demanding racial justice for African-Americans; He envisioned a nation uniting as one to defend the rights of every ethnicity under the constitution.

Martin Luther King Jr. gave arguably one of his most influential speeches on 3 April, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. This would be the last speech he would give to the American people before he was killed shortly after. The speech addresses the unfair treatment of African Americans and how they should respond to it. He talks about how he wants people to peacefully join together in full force in order to fight for equal rights. King talks about all of the successes the Civil Rights Movement has had so far and what his hopes are for future success. He explains all of the events he is thankful he had the opportunity to experience. It acts almost as a goodbye to all of his supporters and a reassurance that everything will be okay no matter what happens in the future. Throughout the speech he appears very confident that the Civil Rights Movement will have the success that he has intended. The speech was, in many ways, unique due to the fact that it seemed as though Martin Luther King Jr. knew that it would be on of his last speeches he would have the ability of making. It Throughout the speech, King uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to effectively get his point out to his listeners.

After explaining Martin Luther King’s death, Kennedy tells the audience that they can act “as Martin Luther King did” by being compassionate and understanding of one another in a time of civil strife, which draws upon King’s reputation as a famous civil rights leader and practitioner of peaceful protest to influence the audience into practicing that same peaceful conduct (Kennedy). This appeal to King’s credibility is persuasive because it causes listeners to contemplate the actions of a familiar and trustworthy individual as well as an influential leader which leads to them desiring to follow in King’s footsteps and conduct themselves as he would with compassion and empathy for the entirety of mankind. In this section of the speech, Kennedy uses a hopeful tone to inspire the audience that despite the mournful attitude that will inevitably follow King’s death, there is still a chance for a bright future in which people are understanding and there is less discrimination if people behave following King’s example. Kennedy states that “we can make an effort” to “replace that

Racism has always been a major problem in America. However, it was known to be the most problematic in the late 1950s. On August 28 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his infamous speech “I Have a Dream” to America. His dream highlighted the injustices of segregation and discrimination of African Americans that took place in this nation every single day. Dr. King inspired thousands despite the color of their skin, to take a stance against racism, with his powerful way with words. In his speech MLK efficaciously uses, Ethos, Pathos, and Logos by using allusions, developing credibility, in his speech to persuade all Americans to be aware of the problems with racism.

King's “I Have a Dream” speech is arguably one of the most famous speeches in American history. It’s popularity and influence would mostly be attributed to Kings excellent use of pathos throughout the speech. Although both logos and pathos can be found in “I Have a Dream”, the lines containing pathos are much more poignant. For example, possibly the most famous line from Dr. King's speech says, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they

Martin Luther King uses Pathos when he says “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

King’s speech; he puts himself in everyone else’s shoes by saying, “I am happy to join with you today.” By doing this, he captures their attention by telling them that “today will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” Now that the audience is fully engaged, he moves towards the sole purpose of his speech. He does this by saying that after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, “100 years later the Negro still is not free.” He goes on to continue to list some of the issues which still occur today and ends his introduction with saying “now is the time” to start action. The body of his speech is primarily made up of the summarization of injustice that the African American people face. He brings up the fact that some people are unable to vote and the police brutality’s which of course support his argument. He makes it personal by giving his insight of his hopes and dreams for the future by stating that his kids will “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The speech’s conclusion properly reviews Martin Luther King Jr.’s points and stimulates the emotions of the audience. He does this by using the repetition of the phrase “let freedom ring” to rejoin with the audience and really emphasizes his belief of the importance of freedom and injustice. Finally, the last line of his speech, “all of God 's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and

Near the end of Martin Luther King’s speech a gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to Dr. King saying, “Tell them about the dream, Martin”. At this point Dr. King stopped reading the speech and expressed his inner feelings saying “I have a dream..”(Mlk, 4). He continued to tell the crowd of his dream for the Negros to be free and equal and that they would be able to live happily and do as they pleased. He had a dream that America would live out the meaning of the constitution stating “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”. He tells the crowd that at the end “We are free at last”. Dr. King’s choice of words and the tone in which he delivers his speech is enticing and pleasing to the crowd of America.

Shortly before Martin Luther King was shot, he gave a powerful speech on civil rights. Martin Luther King’s last speech, ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, was given during the Memphis sanitation strike in which almost 1000 black workers were on strike for not being treated fairly. On April 3rd, 1968, MLK gave his final speech during the times of nonviolent civil rights protest, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” is remembered by people as MLK asking the black population to go out in the streets with him and non violently protest for what they deserve. In his speech, Martin Luther King effectively uses many allusions, repetition, and metaphors to indicate his key point of calling the African American community to action; as he told them

Dr. King used pathos and logos as well as ethos in his speech to appeal to the audience in a more emotional way. He mostly attempts to appeal to the audiences’ emotions, fears, and desires. When King repeats with the infamously famous quote, “I have a dream,” he stresses a sense of sympathy and hope towards the African American population during that time period. King states that the, “Negro…finds himself in exile in his own land.” In this phrase, King yields compassion as one can see when he emphasizes the unfair treatment and alienation of the African Americans. King also uses highly connotative language so that he could evoke a, emotional response to the audience such as, “chains of discrimination” and “oppression” to reinforce the need

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.

He questions the audience about society and what they have done for their community. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality; we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities; we cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one; we can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity,” (King). King knows how to bring the people into the speech to involve every single person standing before him and make them feel like they are apart of the speech. He mentions what has been taken away from them which creates anger within the crowd. King’s ability to appeal to the audience through emotion affected society for decades after and changed the sense of pride the African Americans had.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the predominant leader of the Civil Rights Movement to end racial discrimination and segregation in the latter half of the twentieth century. As a world-renowned spokesperson advocating nonviolent protest, many of his speeches were centered on peaceful ways to change the unfair treatment and segregation of blacks. His hope was to use these methods of nonviolent protest so that one day all of God’s children, whites and blacks included, would live, and treat each other, as equals. On April 3, 1968, he delivered what would be his final speech, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters).

Despite his original intent to motivate a crowd of striking sanitation workers, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” served as his final words of support and encouragement to a nation still struggling with social problems and to future advocates of social justice and change. The rhetoric behind “Mountaintop” reveals King as a humble yet forthright and intelligent speaker whose convincing arguments and powerful voice directed his listeners to action. Under the “five canons of rhetoric”-invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery- “Mountaintop” is truly a captivating speech and an essential piece to understanding King’s legacy.

In his speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King Jr. reminds his audience of the agony, strength, and resentment they feel due to racial discrimination through personification, imagery, equivocation, and anaphora. In doing so, King persuades his audience of protestors to apply nonviolent methods of reform to gain equality while propelling a newfound sense of energy and motivation into the movement. King begins his speech by integrating personification and imagery to emphasize the pain and destruction that such unfairness creates in order to unify and convince his audience to make a change in the world. Through equivocation, he stresses the strength in the unified force of the African American community to demonstrate that passive resistance enough to achieve success. King alludes to the audience's anger in order to rally the protesters and incite energy in their tedious journey of reform. The rhetorical strategies of highlighting the various pathetic appeals works for the intended audience of demonstrators because this movement for equality has a very emotional origin.