Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

In this life, many hope for peace, but not many try to achieve it. According to Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there are many ways to achieve this, but the best possible course of action would be through nonviolent direct action, which includes but is not limited to: peaceful protest, sit-ins and civil disobedience. In King’s letter, he proclaims his reasoning behind nonviolent direct action, including: the concept that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (par. 4), extremism can be used positively (par. 22), and the fact that “oppressed people will not stay oppressed forever” (par. 24). King uses literary devices including ethos, logos, and pathos to prove and reaffirm that which he is trying to convey.

In paragraphs 12-14 King uses a combination of rhetorical strategies to argue the urgency for changing current segregation laws. Kings selective use of imagery, parallel structure, and metaphors helps bring out the emotions of the eight clergymen, making them feel sympathy and understand Martin Luther King Jr.s point of view.

Throughout the world, many speeches are delivered that convey an essential message to the minds of the audience. Similarly, a revolutionary man delivered a speech to embolden and assert the audience in dissidence against the intolerable discrimination as well as the segregation of African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent figure in the history of Civil Rights, recited his famous speech, “I Have A Dream.” He stood for the ideas of social equality. Throughout his speech, he used extensive rhetorical strategies that made it effective for the audience.

Martin Luther King Junior is often known as the leader of African American civil rights in the United States. His infamous “I Have a Dream” speech brought a crowd of over two hundred and fifty thousand people to the steps and lake of the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a protest in Birmingham, Alabama that focused on the unfair treatment and the segregation of African Americans. The court ruled that he was not allowed to hold protests. Therefore, he was arrested and placed in Birmingham Jail. While inside his solitary confinement cell, he wrote a letter and had it sent out through his lawyer. This letter was addressed to the clergymen of Birmingham but he knew that everybody would be reading it.

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation… But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free...the Negro is sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chain of discrimination,“ (King 261). During the civil rights movement Martin Luther King, Jr. had a speech about how they were treated and does not have much right like others, even they were supposed to be free long ago. During the 1960s, the group of people was treated poorly than another group of people. People who are treated unwantedly wanted a right, freedom, and change in society. Like what Martin Luther King told his audiences they were supposed to have the same

Martin Luther King Jr. built his speech around fighting unjust conditions placed on both African Americans and soldiers of the Vietnam war with non-violent protest. King is arguably the best speaker the world has seen, he knows how to get his audience passionate about the problems America faces while also informing them of what causes these problems.

Civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech while standing at the feet of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. His uplifting speech is one of the most admired during the civil rights era and arguably one of the best in American history. On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the true American dream: equality. Although the video of his oral spectacle is powerful, the written document portrays exactly how brilliant Martin Luther King Jr. really was. Like an Architect who uses his stones to build strong palaces, Martin Luther King Jr. uses every word, every sentence, and every paragraph purposely to convey the necessity of a civil rights

In the most paramount time of racism in America, there a voice that enacted a call for change. Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister and social activist who spent countless years, fighting for a civil rights. It was on the date of August 28th, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln memorial is where King made his leap of faith and spoke out on the injustice of African Americans. His dream for African Americans to be equal, appealed to the emotions of his audience. The desire to live a civil life and not be oppressed was felt by many. Martin Luther King delivered a speech that would immensely make an impact on the country.

During the mid 20th century, citizens all over America were fighting for their rights, especially including women and those of color. This period marked the beginning of a long road of reconciliation and reconstruction, but now citizens have been able to cross the finish line in establishing equal rights for all of the United States citizens. Over time, American’s former issues regarding the civil liberties of citizens have slowly resolved such as the rights of equality for citizens of color, the repercussions of citizens voicing their opinions, and acquiring rights for women.

Martin Luther King, Jr had been a strong leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s and fought hard to bring an end to the Negro’s struggle to fight oppression and gain equality. When he was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama he then fell under criticism by white clergy for coming to Birmingham as an “outsider” to cause trouble and increase tension through public sit-ins and marches. I feel that Martin Luther King was able to both set aside that criticism by establishing his credibility to have not only been invited to come to Birmingham to help end the injustice to the Negro people via peaceful means, but he was able to identify moral, legal and ethical cause to promote his quest to put a stop to what he identified as “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” I will provide a summary that will show what Martin Luther King believed were the cause of the injustice that he was striving to end to as well as his concern over the white community’s ability to make the Negro “wait for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights.”

The Acceptance Speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasizes the racial injustice being held by the majority white population in 1964, by the use of repetition. Kings acceptance of this speech involves a complex understanding of a people in a critical point in their lives. He uses different statements to define the authenticity of a cause that means a great deal to him. Martin Luther King Jr, is a man of God, fighting for the rights of his people to be treated as equals, in a way very few have tied before, nonviolence. In the year 1964 in Oslo, Reverand Martin Luther King Jr. accepts an award half of his people, but not without explaining the priorities of freedom that his side is fighting for. King uses repetition constantly in his speech in

In Martin Luther King's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize he uses affective language to get his audience's attention. He received this award for his efforts of teaching the world about why there should be equality between all individuals, no matter what a person's skin color is. In his acceptance speech he makes his voice heard, which gave him a attentive audience. Through his speech he tells the audience what he stands for, rights and equality of individuals. He presents his audience reasons why inequality is morally wrong. He made his audience think about the meaning of equality, which lead them to question whether they stand for equality or not. Martin Luther King writes his speech using pathos and ethos to capture his audience's attention to persuade them into believing inequality is wrong.

In the early 1960, the civil right movement reaches its peak. Dr. Martin Luther King, founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a civil right activist lead the great march on Washington, where he deliver his “I have a dream” in front of over 200,000 of people at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.

In these excerpts from his speech, he talks about his experiences as in what he has seen and heard. For example, he talks about how he watched both black and white men waging war against Vietnam, burning down huts and crushing men’s deepest dreams. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks about the cruel irony of this war when in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem the same thing is happening only its Us citizens fighting each other. This type of argument is compelling because it speaks of a horror that to most US citizens have no way to relate to and compares it to the Vietnam which citizens saw first hand. He also appeals to the hearts of the masses using their sympathy for the soldiers and connects this to the residents

Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to the thousands of African Americans who had marched on Washington, D.C. at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The date of the speech was August 28, 1963, but it is one that will live for generations. Of course his purpose was to convince his audience on several fronts: he sought to persuade the black community to stand up for the rights afforded them under the Constitution, and he also sought to demonstrate to the white community that a "simple" black man could so effectively use powers of persuasion that they too would have reason to join the cause. He stated in his opening sentence that the event at which he spoke