Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered at Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. In hopes of planting the seed of equality into every American’s heart and letting it flourish. King expresses his profound and powerfully emotional thoughts while also mentioning momentous decrees such as the Emancipation Proclamation and Declaration of Independence that were signed by our founding fathers in our nations early history. These documents were intended to unlock the invisible cage that once held African Americans hostage from being treated as equals. Centuries later the Negro community was still riddled by racial injustice and oppression.
His final purpose of the speech was to attain freedom for his fellow African American citizens who were being treated unfairly during that period in the country. He starts his speech by trying to grab the audiences attention that, that day was going to be one of the most important days in the history of America. Both the extrinsic and intrinsic ethos can be seen very powerfully throughout the speech. His extrinsic ethos is very strong as MLK had been a civil rights activist since very in his career and in the essay he points out some facts for example “signing the Emancipation Proclamation”. MLK is seen as a credible figure
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration one hundred years before. The declaration was supposed to bring equality to the American Society and bring whites and blacks together as one, but that promise was never a reality among our society during that time. King’s speech was to convey the wrongful discrimination of the black race and that all races should be treated as equals. The tone and the way he used rhetoric appeals in this speech was to capture the attention of his audience and let them feel the sadness that he feels because of this racism, and indeed it did. There are three appeals of persuasion, ethos, logos, and pathos.
In his concessions to white Americans, in the Atlanta Compromise, Washington surprised many blacks. He painted a picture of the black man as a loyal servant ready to work arduously for white employers. He urged blacks to have patience and to gain self-respect through material progress. “No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized” he stated. Washington recognized the resistance that white America instinctively felt toward any form of radical racial reforms.
Zoe McClure “I Have a Dream” speech critique Public Speaking 108-66 Instructor Gil Stern I have a dream, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, became an inspiration and incentive of hope for all African Americans. Much of the greatness of this speech is tied to its historical context. In his speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, Dr. King expresses his frustration that after a hundred years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are still treated as inferior citizens. However, he also expresses his hope that this will change and African Americans will be "free at last." He makes use of rhetorical devices to convey his message that "all men are created equal" and that racism should not, cannot, continue if the nation is to prosper.
he portrayed ethos in his speech effectively because he himself is an African American, and he knows exactly what kind of segregation and discrimination his black brothers are experiencing. King gives an example by saying, “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
Martin Luther King Jr. (I Have a Dream) In “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out to the nation how the black people struggle on a daily basis with segregation and discrimination in a country that calls itself a free nation. First, King mentions how he is standing in the shadows of a great American that signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the Negros of this country from slavery. King expresses how this was a beacon of light to millions of Negros, that brought them from the flames of withering injustice to a joyous daybreak, and how this was an end to their dark captivity. King goes on to say, after a hundred years the black man is still being crippled with the ongoing problems of segregation and discrimination, and how the Negroes feel like they are being exiled in their own country. King illustrates that they are in the nation’s capital to cash a check, which the architects of this country wrote by signing the Constitution and the Declarations of Independence.
It was reverend Martin Luther King and other great people like him in history, people with a desire for justice and equality, that eventually brought equality or at least reasonable equality in comparison to the inequalities that once existed in the United States of America. It is absolutely astounding that today the USA has a black president, this is a wonderful testament to those that sacrificed so much to see those of cultural and ethnic minority recognised as equal. It is not so much the battle for equality that is going to be examined in this essay however, a different view is going to be looked at, as every story has two sides it is important to look at the other side from time to time. This is not meant as from a point of pity, but more from a point of view that we can understand what happened and how it was allowed to develop into the complete degradation of a people based solely on their race and the exploitation of these people to the benefit of the few. In this essay we are going to summarise why the wealthy and powerful white Americans, those few that made so much from the oppression of the African Americans, required such in equality and why it was worth fighting for?
He also explains the goals and solutions of the problem which the black population was facing consistently. Later, he gives the opinion that the fate of white people is tied up with the destiny of the black and their peaceful coexistence is essential for the progress and prosperity of the state. He then moves on to describe the potential of the population that has not been allowed to participate in the progress of the country. He argued that if given respect, opportunity and responsibility, the African Americans would be capable enough to be active participants in nation building. He beautifully told that it is the duty of the government to uproot the racial discrimination between the blacks and whites.
President Obama’s A More Perfect Union speech that he delivered conveyed many messages about his beliefs concerning racism. He starts off explaining how the founders of our nation made the Constitution creating all men equal, but not actually practicing that idea. Obama is the son of a white woman and a Kenyan man, and there is much criticism about his supporters supporting him purely because of his race. His former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright recently spoke some very controversial words concerning the issue of racism, which created much unease. Obama goes on to say that his former pastor is a good man, that he just has lived and grew up in a time where segregation and the Jim Crow Laws were very much legal in the U.S.