Rhetorical Analysis: Rosa Parks

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Barack Obama, President of the United States, empowers and frames Rosa Parks' legacy through contextualization of historical events, comparison to our modern struggles, and proposed application of her principles. Through this, Obama inspires all citizens who experience or witness injustice to stand up and fight back. Obama begins his speech by defining Rosa Parks as someone who "held no office", "possessed no fortune", and "lived her life far from the formal seats of power." This sets up his next sentence, in which he contrasts her qualities with her legacy, stating that "today, she takes her rightful place among those who've shaped this nation's course." Obama frames his statements in this way to establish Rosa Parks in our minds as someone …show more content…

Contextualizing this moment, Obama establishes that in doing so, she had broken the status quo, as, at the time, people of color were expected to give up their seats for white people. For one woman to challenge what was then a heavily normalized law was unheard of. Obama elaborates that Rosa Parks' courage and willingness to act brought in thousands who had had similar experiences, but were previously too afraid to speak out. One woman's actions sparked a movement, inspiring those who knew of their struggle to fight against it and those who knew not of it to learn. Applying this idea to modern-day issues, Obama uses Rosa Parks' legacy to advocate for new issues to be handled similarly. Expressing his heartfelt desire for this change, Obama exclaims that "we see the way things are--children hungry in a land of plenty, entire neighborhoods ravaged by violence, families hobbled by job loss or illness--and we make excuses for inaction." The story of Rosa Parks that Obama had told earlier in his speech contrasts this inaction, in that it proves that seemingly insurmountable problems can be battled with the effort of one person to start a

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