Ku Klux Klan Speech Analysis

Individual Oral Presentation
Jailed 29 times having narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and led more than 200,000 Americans in protest to the Lincoln Memorial not to suppress, but to eradicate racial injustice (Nps.gov, 2015). In contrast, the lynching of over 3,000 (Starr, 2013)and the brutal treatment of thousands of African Americans over 86 years “the Klan” presented a political ideology that embraced neo-fascism, homophobia, anti-Catholicism, racial terrorism and white supremacy (Starr, 2013), (KKK, 2015). The Ku Klux Klan were the ultimate proponents of fanatical prejudice and racial injustice. These two conflicting convictions were the

King. Unlike historical allusions which are present in the beginning of the speech, Biblical allusions are spread throughout the entirety of the speech. Although these are countless uses of Biblical terminology employed in the speech, the most common are the Good Samaritan, Moses and the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Dr. King utilized these particular allusions in opposition to the groups that used the Bible to justify their actions of segregation and slavery. For instance, the Good Samaritan is used as a method of reiterating the ignorance of the whites. The Levite asks “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” however, the Good Samaritan asserts "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" This clearly illustrates the mind set in which the white community regards this situation (Kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu, 2015). Dr. King reassures the audience that the most laudable method of creating equality is to reverse the question of the Levite. Exodus 24:15 “Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai.” This is the basis of the speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”; however, in this case Dr. King goes to the mountaintop and witnesses the glory of the Lord. The death of Moses is a paramount contributor to the message of this speech, because after Moses frees the slaves from Egyptian rule, he passes

Kings “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”; however, the purpose of the techniques has been reversed to align with the ideologies of the Ku Klux Klan. For instance, in the parody the speaker anaphorically states “But I wouldn’t stop there”, but changes the context of the repetition, and instead, refers to the alarming events in recent history such as the rise of the Nazi Regime and the creation of the Ku Klux Klan. The purpose of antithetically and anaphorically representing historical allusions is to reflect on the anti-Semitic and bigoted ideologies of the Klan in comparison to Dr. King’s impartial treatment of all people. For instance in “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Dr. King discloses an anecdote of his near death experience.
The incident occurred in New York City at an autographing event, where an African American women stabbed Dr. King in the chest. A letter was later sent to Dr. King by a little girl at the White Plains High School, which simply said “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze." (Kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu,