Was Martin Luther King Jr. really as great a speaker as he is remembered as? His speeches did move people, but which people?
Seldom did Dr. King ever adress white people while giving a speech since his usual purpose was to rile the Negroes into fighting their oppressors. The common traits associated with his speeches such as the rhythm and call and answer format were used due to his familiarity with them due to his Baptist background. His realizing that religion lies at the heart of Negro tradition allowed him to cater to their familiarities while ignoring the white traditions he was not raised with. His lack of respect for the white man goes so deep that Dr. King disqualifies their traditions for his own movement. If Dr. King were to broaden
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In just the first half of the speech, Dr. King was already mentioning that “the glory of the lord shall be revealed” once people of all color come together (2). Martin Luther King has hardly gotten into why the Negroes should have equal rights and is already bringing the Lord onto his side. While he can count on this having a lasting effect on the black Baptist community, the same assumption cannot be made pertaining to the white population. Keeping in mind that the audience he must now sway are traditional americans, the only common trait amongst them that can be safely assumed is their patriotism. He makes a desperate attempt to incorporate ideals of patriotism such as freedom in his final statement Free at last! Free at Last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last! …show more content…
King would also have to take out his slandering traditional white culture if he truly wanted his point to be taken into consideration. A good majority of the speech consisted of Dr. King negatively connoting the white culture through strong use of adjectives. He described the people living in Alabama as “vicious racists” and Mississippi “a state sweltering with the heat of injustice” since those are the states inhabited by traditional Americans (3). Describing these states this way is a direct attack on the white way of life which would have to be eliminated if he wanted whites to value his speech. Not only does he negatively connote the white way of life, he blatantly threatens them by saying “ those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual” and that “there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights”(2). By basically stating that there will not be peace until Negros get rights, therefore threatening the white way of life. Outright threatening the audience would make them not even listen to one’s argument, even if it were supported by
Dr. King uses imagery in his writing that makes the audience visualize what he has seen. He knows that the white moderates have strong family values, so he reaches out to them by providing stories about children. There is one story about a little girl who has just seen an ad on television and when she asks her father if she can go, he has to look his daughter in the eye and tell her that ?Funtown is closed to colored children?(King 561). He then goes on to explain about how that forces that young child to grow up to feel inferior and to begin to hate because she has darker skin than the other children do. Then there is another story about the family taking a cross-country vacation and having to ??sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile?? because motels would not accept colored people (King 561). It ...
Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr’s up bringing was fairly pleasant and he was brought up with a great education. However, he had his couple of prejudices and traumatic experience through out his life. One of these including one of his friends who was a fair skinned boy who was told to tell King that he was no longer allowed to play with him because the children were now attending
In his speech at the 1829 Virginia Constitutional Convention, James Madison said “The great danger [in a republic] is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.” When he said this, he meant that the idea of majority rule can result in the infringement on the rights of the minority in order to protect or further the rights, freedoms, or ideals of the majority. Journalists and the media are a major factor in shaping people 's political opinions, moral beliefs, and knowledge of current events. The diversity of voices and perspectives in the media helps to provide all viewpoints and sides of the story, especially when talking about current events and political issues. Journalists can help to protect the rights of
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.
On August 28, 1963 Dr. King made his way to Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to commit his speech to his fellow Americans. Dr. King commands his speech during an ironic period time of America history. African-Americans were frowned upon by the Caucasian. Not only the African-American had a difficult time fitting in, also Asians and Hispanics were discriminated and surrogated from the Caucasian population. The heartless Caucasian police officers would verbally command their racists’ hounds on the desperate but yet innocent African-American young adults and children. The inhuman Caucasian fire department used their almighty water hose on the nonviolent protesters, only because the protesters’ skins were darker than theirs.
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 biased ideas caused the true dilemma of discrimination.
King peacefully pleads for racial tolerance and the end of segregation by appealing to the better side of white Americans. His attempt to persuade America about the justice of his cause, and to gain support for the civil rights movement was emotionally moving. He spoke to all races, but his rhetoric was patriotic, and culturally similar to, and focused on African-Americans. He was able to make practical use of a history many Americans are proud of. The use of repetition reinforced his words making it simpler and more straightforward to follow. His speech remains powerful because it is still relevant today, like economic injustices and stereotyping. This reading can be applied to remedying current issues of stereotyping, racism, and discrimination by changing white racial resentment and eliminating racial
Overall, Martin Luther King’s purpose of this speech was to unite African Americans and Caucasians to fight together for the same cause, equal rights for all people no matter the color of their skin. To successfully convey this purpose, King employed several tools of persuasion in his speech. He did indeed present an example of what could qualify as the "greatest demonstration" of arguments for true freedom for all Americans. He employed the techniques of ethos, pathos and logos with such skill that his audience likely was only aware of a single steering man towards a national unity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. wants to be the spokesperson of the African American community in the United States of America. His intention is to prove his opponents he has sufficient authority to promote the civil rights cause on behalf of his community. The first example that illustrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s use of this strategy is present in the second paragraph of his letter: "I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference". Thus, he reminds his interlocutors of his position of leadership in the religious community....
On the day of his speech, King spoke to thousands of people from many backgrounds. Many black as well as white people had the good fortune to hear him speak and he referred to them all as "my friends." This one simple component of King's speech made the speech accessible to everyone as it was a welcoming gesture that was meant to show that both the audience and King were positioned on the same level and although they came from varying levels of education and economic statuses, King's immediate listeners all shared a common dream, racial equality. This factor most likely made the audience feel that they were equally as important as the great leader in the fight for racial equality. Referring to the listeners, it is also important to note the fact that supporters of changes in civil rights were not the only audience that King was reaching too. King undoubtedly had...
...n feel the emotions he feels. He says “your mothers and fathers”, “your brothers and sisters”, “your six-year-old daughter” so the reader pictures their white mother, white father, white brother, white sister, white son, or white daughter instead of a black person. It is likely that many of the people who he was writing this letter to still viewed African Americans as lesser than equals and he wanted them to see themselves as the ones who were being treated unjustly. By effectively using rhetoric Dr. King was able to make the reader picture themselves and their family members as the victims, and in doing so he was able to make a much stronger emotional argument.
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. In his speech, King uses different types of rhetorical guidelines. He uses them to show his points in a better and easier way to understand. At the beginning he successfully uses mythos. A myth has a deep explanatory or symbolic resonance for the audience.
At one point, he mentions how he feels more and more that “the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will”(5), meaning those who continue to oppress the African Americans have used their time to their own advantage, not for good, but instead, for their own selfish benefit. Meanwhile, those who fight for equality have spent hours, days, even years, but no results. King even goes to mention Adolf Hitler and everything he did in Germany which was seen as “legal” but yet what “Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’” (4). The ridicule of that is how much damage and hurt he caused to Jews because of the hate he had towards them and it being seen as “correct” yet others who were trying to achieve something for themselves were seen as doing an illegal act. Also, the example of old people and children getting beat, “if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys…”(8). He felt the need to show how ridiculous colored men, women, and children are treated by policemen to show that they’re not what they make themselves out to be. They get mistreated by the same people that get commended by others for having everything in
Martin Luther King Jr is one of the wisest and bravest black man the world has ever seen. He has set the path way for the black community and other miniorities. In his Nobel Prize Speech the “Quest for Peace and Justice”, King had three major points that he addressed in the “Quest of Peace and Justice”. One of the points he made was about racial injustice and how we need to eliminate it. King stated that, “when civilization shifts its basic outlooks then we will have a freedom explosion”. Overtime things must change, nothing never stays the same. King’s way of making parallels with this is making the claim is saying, “Oppressed people can’t oppressed forever, and the yearning will eventually manifest itself”. He insisted that blacks have,
The purpose of the speech was to address the issues of segregation and racism as a whole. King speaks about the issues of racism and segregation in America during the 1960’s. He encourages the use of non-violent protests and to fight for equality to help America solve the issue. King begins his speech by referencing important historical documents such as the Constitution of the United States and the Emancipation Proclamation. This is emphasized when he states, ”Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.