On the 8th of August 1963, an admirable man named Martin Luther King Jr. gave an incredible speech to about 250,000 people in the Washington March for Jobs and Freedom. He delivered his speech “I Have a Dream” in hopes of ending racism and gaining equal economic and civil rights for blacks in America. King’s words noticeably impacted numerous people for the speech still remains greatly remembered today. Having the spirit of an activist, King wakes the people up by telling them how a hundred years ago the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, yet Negros still remain bound to unequal treatment and payment in America. By using reasoning, emotion, and quotations from various sources, King successfully held their attention and shone more light to the Civil Rights Movement. In order to persuade his crowd to see the problems, King uses logos in his speech. He uses reasoning by reminding the people of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, in …show more content…
He successfully evokes pity and sorrow from the crowd as he speaks of the hard roads the Negros had to take. “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 fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities,” says King in “I Have a Dream.” Also, King talks of how racism as affected even the black children as well as they see various signs of “For Whites Only.” However, sorrow and pity are not the only emotions King manages to derive from the people, but hope as well. Although some had discouraged him from using the line again, King’s “I have a dream” line manages to impact each hearer ad reader of the speech with a sense of hope and faith despite the hardships the Negros faced. With such tactic, Martin Luther King successfully evokes pity and other emotions from the
Historians offer different perceptions of the significance of Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington. Without examining this event within its historical context the media publicity and iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech can easily overshadow progress that was already underway in America. It was insisted by prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker, ‘the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.’ What is important not to overlook is the significant change that took place in the United States during the previous 100 years. Such that, many influential figures in support of racial equality opposed the March. The Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy in 1963 was already in the legislative process. Furthermore the Federal Government was now reasserting power over the entire of the United States by enforcing a policy of desegregation. It is important to note that these changes all took place less than one hundred years after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1965 abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth amendment in 1968 acknowledged the rights of former slaves to be acknowledged as U.S citizens. With this level of progress Kennedy was against the March going ahead due to the argument that it was limited in what it could achieve. Today, King’s 1963 Speech is viewed as one of the most iconic speeches in history. However, was it a key turning point in African Americans achieving racial equality? Federal endorsement would suggest yes after decades of southern states being able to subvert the Federal law designed to break down segregation. This support built upon the corner stones of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments in the nineteenth century. Therefore looking at the national status of black Americans fro...
On August 28th, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to roughly twenty-five thousands people attending the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. In Dr. King’s speech, “I Had a Dream”, he uses rhetorical devices to convey that all people are created equal and to educate the importance of the Civil Rights Movement.
Firstly, two literary devices King used in his speech were ethos and logos. To appeal and emphasize his credibility, King began his speech with, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we
King then uses the appeal known as pathos. Pathos is a Greek word meaning 'suffering ' or 'experience, ' and it appeals to the reader 's emotions, utilizing story, sensory-based details and vivid language. Throughout Dr King’s letter then showed how the African American they were suffering in the hands of the Whites. An a good example is “...when you suddenly find your tongue-twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.”(844) Dr. King then used a child because he knew that child is a child no matter the color or race they are innocent of their crimes and nobody wants to see a child cry. Dr. King then went on to talk about the how the African American are been tormented each day and night. “…you spend night after night in your car because no motel will accept you. Day and night you are humiliated by nagging signs; when your first name is “nigger” and middle name is “boy”….(845). He described cruel behaviors of police towards blacks in jails. He said that, “Hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brother and sisters and vast majority of twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty” (844). He went further to explain that there is the need for change to happen. This is a clear
The author of the “I Have A Dream” speech is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King, known for his work in Civil Rights during the 1960s. In this informative speech, Dr. King inspires individuals to have a change in both white and black citizens during the Civil RIghts era in the United States. Moreover, the premise of the speech is that both sides of the discussion must accept change in a non-violent yet effective way. He spoke about the injustices of segregation and discrimination of black citizens that was occurring in our nation. As he opened, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation,” he explained what he was there to do for all citizens. He is
Whenever Martin Luther King Junior, began to speak, he held everybody’s attention. This was the case in 1963 during the pinnacle of the Civil Rights Movement when Martin gave his career defining speech “I Have a Dream”. Over a quarter million people attended the protest, and the crowd varied in color as well as cause. A crowd of this size would certainly frighten most people; but Martin was not the type of man to be phased easily. Martin grew up on the racist streets of Atlanta, Georgia and faced much adversity in his life. Not even thirty-five Martin would give a speech that would shake an embroiled nation to its core. Martin Luther King Junior gave a speech to beautifully wove together the three appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos into one
...highlights the fact that Dr. King’s dream is not for his race to be better than any other, or for any race to be superior, but that everyone should be brothers. Dr. King’s choice of repetitive lines is powerful and effective.
King utilises Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric, a persuasion technique, one of which is pathos. It refers to the mode of utilizing human emotions. King portrays the hardship that Negroes undergo due to racism by using strong adjectives and metaphors that indeed create emotions. For example, King elaborates the state of the African Americans as being “crippled” by the “manacles of segregation” and “chains of discrimination.” Through this, King depicts that fact that the Negroes are undergoing unbearable sufferance; as if the Negroes had committed a crime and have to be restrained in cells with no freedom like caged animals ...
In his speech, he proclaimed a free and better nation of equality and that both races, the blacks and the whites, should join together to achieve common ground and to support each other instead of fighting against one another. King’s vision is that all people should be judged by their “personality and character and not by their color of skin”(‘I Have a Dream”). All points he made in his speech were so strong that lots of people were interested in his thoughts. He dreamed of a land where the blacks could vote and have a reason to vote and where every citizen would be treated the same and with the same justice. He felt that all Americans should be equal and that they should forget about injustice and segregation. He wanted America to know what the problems were and wanted to point out the way to resolve these problems.
Martin Luther King, Jr., uses pathos to make his speech appeal emotionally to his audience. He uses painful imagery such as, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (King). By metaphorically linking slavery with segregation, King hopes to show that though the physical “manacles” are no longer present, the emotional and social bondage is still very real and very painful for an entire segment of America’s population. Dr. King knew that it was important for his listeners not only to sympathize, but also to empathize with the African American people. As a father himself King knew that it is more difficult to harbor ill will towards a child, so perhaps that is why he includes, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most notable speeches in American history, at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King started off his famous “I Have a Dream” speech by stating the impact it would have on America’s civil rights movement: “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” (King 1). With knowledge of rhetoric and persuasion, King had a substantial impact on the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos appeals enable King to persuade the audience to achieve equality.
Throughout King’s speech, he uses the rhetorical mode, pathos, to give the audience an ambience of strong emotions such as sympathy. For example, whites had sympathy for African Americans and parents had sympathy for their children. The way that King tells his speech takes the focus off of race and reestablishes it on the aspiration of a world without racism. “…by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world…” (L., Anson). Dr. King made the audience sympathize with African Americans, helping the audience realize that racist people and bias ideas caused the true dilemma of discrimination. Through making the audience realize this, he also gave them hope for a world reborn without racism, without segregation, without discrimination, and without hate. King wanted his children to live in a world without judgment of race, but with the consideration of personality, for nobody should not endure judgment because of the way that they look. He spoke of his own children, which introduced a reinforced emotional attachment to the audience; this gave many parents a scenario to relate to because no parent wants ...
On August 28, 1963 more than 250,000 civil-rights supporters attended the March on Washington. Addressing the protesters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Profoundly, he proclaimed for a free nation of equality where all race would join together in the effort to achieve common ground. King stated his yearning for all colors to unite and be judged by character, not by race. African Americans would not be satisfied until their desire for freedom from persecution, bitterness, and hatred prevailed. Not only were the points in his speech powerful, but also the delivery he gave was so persuading and real that it changed the hearts of many people across America. By using four artificial proofs, mythos, logos, ethos, and pathos, Martin Luther King was able to open the eyes of people who were blinded by the color of skin.
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than two score years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. Aimed at the entire nation, King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice towards the mistreated African Americans and to stand up together for the rights afforded to all under the Constitution. To further convey this purpose more effectively, King cleverly makes use of the rhetorical devices — ethos, pathos and logos — using figurative language such as metaphors and repetition as well as various other techniques e.g. organization, parallel construction and choice of title.
An appeal has been used by King when he mentions: “Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom has left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” This targets the sense or value of justice in the audience and triggers it, confronting the audience about the large amount of persecution and police brutality that is being shown to the African Americans, due to the amount of racial injustice in the society. As well as causing the audience to feel sad for the victims, it gets across the effects of racial injustice and therefore motivates the audience even more to put an end to it, so that there is justice for everyone in the society, no matter what race they are. In addition to this, King also uses a metaphor