Martin Luther King jr. Essay

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.

“... One hundred years later, the life of a negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast ocean prosperity. One hundred years later, the negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. This was said in the famous Martin Luther King Jr. Speech, “I Have a Dream”. Back then it was the Civil Rights Movements with the African Americans and how they wanted to be treated equally. Yes, they have their rights, but they are separated from the rest of society. They are looked down on.

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

The primary purpose of Dr. King’s eloquent and dramatically delivered speech is that of persuasion. King’s claim is the Negro people are still not free one hundred years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This warrant is supported by King’s effective emotional appeal to his African American audience. He supports this with the following: "but one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.” This is emotional because after one hundred years of oppression, the African American community has still not achieved their cultural and economic potential according to King. He is endeavoring to persuade his audience, fellow minorities and

I have a dream that one day everyone will understand what Martin Luther King Jr said in his infamous speech on August 28, 1963, and recognize the power and beauty in his words. In the “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. persuades the citizens of the United States that they should no longer accept segregation, and all men should be created equal, as our Constitution states. In this fight though, we can not use violence, but use the power of words, and not stop until every human being is free. This speech was given in a time where black people were made to think that they were equal with white people, when in actuality, they were “separate but equal” which is not the same thing. This is when called segregation flourished and eventually, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had enough of this injustice and he spoke out to the citizens of the United States and the world to fight for freedom. This speech used all of the rhetorical devices: ethos, logos, and pathos, and it used such powerful, discrete language that not only persuaded the reader, but entertained them, drawing in his audience after every word. Its rhythm made it stay with people, haunting them. He truly made it clear of the awful ways the African American people were being treated, connecting to them, making them feel something, making the reader want to listen to him and follow King with every step he took.

King’s use of word choice intensifies his speech to stop racial discrimination in America. He uses negative words, like “captivity”, “poverty” and “persecution” to describe that African-Americans have no freedom and constantly being discriminated within society due to their skin colour. Kings distinctive voice begins with “One hundred years ago” is repeated, which suggest the lack of no change in the lives of African- Americas one hundred years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves. King also states “America has given the Negro people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’, which recognises his use of a metaphor to express something that many people in the audience may have felt or even experienced. Personification is used when he says “that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” America here is being compared to a human being who can rise up and live the true meaning of his belief. The intensity of King’s speech is built through bold statements and rhythmic repetition. Each repetition builds on the one mentioned before and is reinforced by King’s increasing passion “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina…” It would always take a commanding voice to inspire thousands and King’s booming voice was well practiced in

Dr. King's speech was focused on the segregation of races. The primary theme of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech is to not be judgmental towards others because of the way they may look, because everyone is equal. Martin Luther King Junior's goal was to persuade the nation to believe in equality between people of all races. The speech was an accomplishment because it prompted people to change their ways and see that everyone is equal on the inside, even though everyone looks different on the

He dreamt about the day when his kids would be able to live a life where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. He had the vision of the day when every school would be desegregated and little white boys and little white girls would be able to join hands with little black boys and little black girls.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opens his speech with “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation”, which freed all slaves and gave hope. He immediately mentions how 100 years later the Negro is still not free and is being treated unequal. He advises all Americans to take action immediately but to do so in a non-violent way. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made it aware that he wasn’t blind by all the pain and suffering they were going through but he was still holding on to his dream that one day everyone would be able to live in harmony. He also invokes authority by using the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, ‘“unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit

One issue King brought to attention in his “I Have a Dream” speech was the false idea that people both white and black had no effect on eithers destiny and that each could walk alone. So he explained by saying, “ … for many of our white brothers, as evidence by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom… bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.” He was correct. They could not walk alone and they did not.

He also mentions that soon, the destinies of both, the Negroes and white people, will meet and become one destiny. “They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom… ‘When will you be satisfied (King, 9.1, 9.5)?” He asks this question because over the Civil Rights Era, many people have died or been arrested for ridiculous events, such as Rosa Parks being arrested for sitting in a whites only seat on a public bus. He answers his own question as, “We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of cities (King, 10.1).” In short, as long as Negroes are not accepted in a white community, they will never be satisfied.

delivered his highly acclaimed “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. In the speech, King sets forth his claims of racial injustice perpetrated by racist citizens of the United States, many of whom had governmental power, whose prime objective was to squelch the freedom of African Americans and maintain “racial superiority.” Moreover, he etched his “dream” into the hearts of many and inspired the future of the United States: “I have a dream that… (we may) one day live in a nation where they [African Americans] will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The African Americans were unjustly treated by many white Americans, and it was the unwillingness of the white populace’s character to submit themselves to the idea of racial equality: “Nobody black had learned anything from the 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail' or from the 'I Have a Dream' speech. That was a revelation of white people.” Intransigency is the mother of spite and the death of freedom; open-mindedness is the mother of freedom, intellectual and moral progress. The fact that most Americans during the racially suppressive nineteen-sixties were willing to listen to the words of a black man, has made all the difference, and has led to much of the love and joy contained in our more-enlightened future. A future in which humanity is healed of its past wounds; a world where we walk alongside each other, united in our love for humanity and the prospect of a brighter

The title of Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” begins by portraying the voiced hope for the oppressed black community who has lived under oppression. In the first sentence of King’s speech “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends,” he speaks to the people in a tone of encouragement, to not drown and lose faith, and by calling them “my friends”. King opens the speech stating a close relationship between him and the thousands of people whom he spoke in front of, immediately making them no longer strangers but a group of people that are united.

In the speech, “I have a dream” By King Jr is full of history, patriotism, and motivation. King Jr shows the people where they have come with using words such as “Five scores years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation (King 290).” and sharing some of their history. He also shares with them patriotism and motivation through his words Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice (King 291).” King Jr also shares how the African Americans also have the American Dream, they want to have freedom, a place to work, a

Dr. King’s speech, “I Have Dream,” was given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. I was really amazed when I saw the crowd; thousands of people from different races from all over the country gathered in this special day for one goal, equality. I was really amazed when I saw the huge crowd’s reaction with King. King addressed, in his speech, his encouragement of white and black people to work together to achieve racial peace and harmony. The purpose of this speech was to give the black man the glimpse of sunlight he had been looking for. This gathering showed that it was time for America to change from racism to equality for all Americans. In his speech, King said, “Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual.” He was telling people