“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent civil rights activist and Nobel Peace prize winner, delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on Washington to an audience of about 250,000 marchers in August of 1963. Dr. King dreamed of a future where there was harmony between all races in America. Some say America has already reached that stage; however, many point out that America is nowhere near racial harmony. Dr. King was a part of a movement of black Americans protesting for equal rights and the end of segregation in the south. Before the Civil Rights Movement from 1954-1968, racial tensions between white and black Americans began boiling …show more content…
As the U.S.S. Arizona was sinking and still under attack, a Negro seaman who had been trained as just a mess man rushed to the deck, grabbed an unmanned anti-aircraft machinegun and kept firing until his ammunition ran out. Such heroics during an attack is always recognized by American leaders, however, if achieved by a black man back then, it was not. And that is exactly what occurred. For a long period of time, the Navy refused to release the name of the sailor, until they acknowledged that many people had read the story because it was being kept alive by many Negro …show more content…
Of the many denied rights of blacks in this period, earning the right to vote peacefully was of great difficulty to gain. Martin Luther King, Jr. was persuaded by local activists to make Selma’s refusal to black voting a prominent issue. On Sunday, March 7th, 1965, six hundred marchers assembled in Selma and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River towards Montgomery. To stop the marchers, Alabama state troopers, local police, and majority of the white citizens of Selma waited on the other side of the bridge. The marchers were commanded and threatened to retreat, but they refused. As a result, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with
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.
Martin Luther King believed in integration, he believed that everyone, blacks and whites should live and work together as equals. ‘I have a dream that … one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.' He held hope that one day black and white Americans would be united as one nation. This approach was crucial for engaging the white community. King was best able to expres...
Dr. King announced the “I Have A Dream” speech in front of 200,000 African American families and to a few Caucasians who were at the scene of his speech. Dr. King’s speech was mainly addressed to the African Americans, to explain one day there will be equality in all Caucasians and other ethnicities such as; Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans. Therefore at the time of his speech, his audiences were to the 200,000 people who attended the speech but he was also referring to all other ethnicities as well. To his audience for example, he said as the future years pass, the hardship they are going through would pay off for the future children. For example, in his speech he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be jugged by the color of their skin but by their content of character.
After 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln gave African American slaves their freedom in society they were still not treated as equals. In August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech “I Have a Dream” that impacted the nation. The twenty-six-year-old pastor of the city's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church had to show the grievances of his people, justify their refusal to ride on Montgomery's city busses, and encourage them in peaceful way. In the “I have a dream” speech given by Dr. King he uses persuasive appeals to fight for the civil right movements in the most civilized way. To do this he had to convince African Americans that his way of going with things was in their best interests, and he had to convince white Americans that his vision was not going to change their heritage and in their best interests as well.
On a grey Sunday morning in March of 1965, Alabama State Troopers at the orders of Governor George Wallace advanced on a group of African-Americans leading a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Using bull-whips, Billy clubs and tear gas, the armed troopers made short work of the defenseless protestors, injuring 57 of them while enforcing the strict segregation of the South. The march which was supposed to start in Selma and end at the state capitol in Montgomery was organized by voting rights leaders after a civil rights activist, Jimmie Lee Jackson, had been killed during a protest. Those who organized the march included chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) John Lewis and Hosea William, an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Voting rights campaign led by the SNCC had targeted Selma because it had one of the lowest ratios of African-American voters to white voters. Out of an eligible 15,000 Selmans, only 200 were registered to vote. The SNCC worked on cracking literacy tests, protesting poll taxes and staging sit-ins at registration centers in order to get blacks registered to vote. White responses a protest led by the SNCC caused the death of SNCC activist Jimmie Lee Jackson and in turn sparked the call for a protest march to Montgomery. After the first march brutally ended on “Bloody Sunday” as it came to be known, a second march was planned which would be co-led by the SNCC and Martin Luther King’s SCLC. A federal injunction allowed the march to take place without interference from the Alabama government. Between March 19th and March 23rd, 1965, thousands of voting rights activists both black and white marched the fifty miles fr...
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
In Martin Luther King entitled, I Have a Dream speech compared to Bernie Sanders entitled, presidential speech have a controversial issues that is being raised in a rhetorical manner. “Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men” (Plato). This is part of the theme in both Martin Luther King and Bernie Sanders speeches. Using Rhetoric, it does not only influence the words, but also the audience. Martin Luther King and Bernie Sanders are both great inspirational leaders that want their audience to hear their voices. Martin Luther King is a civil right activist that is for the people from wanting equal rights. He wants the blacks and whites to come together and end segregation and non-violence. Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist that
Civil rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr, in his powerful speech, “I have a dream” indicated that even though we own the Emancipation Proclamation, we also had been suffering the discrimination. King’s purpose is to invert the current unfair situation and make the Negros have the same rights as white people. He adopts a poignant tone in order to claim that Negros should have their own rightful place and appeal the Negro people who have the same inequity experiences.
A man who wanted equality for him and others in the same situation. Martin Luther King Jr. was apart of the civil rights movement. He gave speeches and did walk’s to help prove that him and people in the same situation were equal to white’s. Martin Luther King Jr. did this all without violence. Martin Luther King Jr. needed to prove a point and knew that violence wasn't the key. Martin Luther King Jr. write’s one of the most famous speech in the world. This speech is called “I Have a Dream”. With this speech he affected us by having equality, non-violent protest, and the Civil Rights movement.
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech “I have a Dream,” in attempt to end all racism throughout the United States. Baptist minister and Civil Rights Activist, Martin played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African American Citizens throughout the south and other areas of the nation. Not only was he a part of that, but he also was a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and he fought for African Americans voting rights in 1965. King craved for a nation that accepted each other for their personality, rather than their skin color. He wanted all men to be equal, as the Bible says to do. He took the first step in achieving his goals and voiced his opinion to everyone who had the ears to listen.
Martin Luther King did not know that his “I Have a Dream” speech would still be iconic 50 years later. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. He was facing the problem of racial injustice for himself and everyone like him. He needed to create a speech that everyone could and would understand, could learn from, and could draw inspiration from. He had to address blacks and whites, he had to say things that everyone could relate to and he had speak in a way that he get the
Martin Luther King, Jr. experienced throughout his lifetime due to racism, he still insists that African Americans should find unity with whites. Throughout his speech, King repetitively references a unity between all races in harmony. He states, “The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom” (King, 1968, p. 2). The white men and women that made their appearance at the speech and throughout the Civil Rights Movement fought for equality in some of the most destructive ways. Wealthy businessmen like Jonathan Myrick Daniels and Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer paid the ultimate price of the lives all in the name of justice between the races. Reverend James Reeb and Viola Gregg Liuzzo also gave their lives during the Selma march while protecting children from the gunfire that shook the streets (“Civil Rights Martyrs, n.d.” p. 69). When King begins to formulate the dream that he has for America to become, he states, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (King, 1968, p. 3). Although it was white people that hurt him and the people that he cared about, Dr. King still wanted to include those same white persons in all things good that were to come from their
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech states that Blacks were denied their equal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (I Have a Dream). The Emancipation Proclamation, written by Abraham Lincoln, supposedly freed all slaves, but Blacks were still treated with disrespect. Blacks needed to have equal rights because they were mistreated, criticized, and they wanted their respect.
Many Americans were outraged by an event that occurred on March 7, 1965, when Alabama state troopers attacked peaceful voting rights protest participants who were marching from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery. These individuals were battered with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refused to turn back. Some of them were severely beaten and others ran for their lives. This event was seen on national television, and after this brutal incident, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed extensive voting rights legislation.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech describes the past, present, and future lives of African-Americans. Racism of African-American was a huge issue of the time, which created kairotic moment for the speech and motivated Dr. King to demonstrate the racial problems of the time. The propose of Dr. King’s speech was to inform people about racial equality and fairness by providing hope and a vision of the future. Dr. King’s speech was intended for different types of audience especially for racial supremacists and African-Americans who were discriminated against.