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A short biography of Martin Luther King
Analysis of the speech I have a dream
Analysis of the speech I have a dream
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born into a society that treated him inferior to white people just because he was African-American. As a bright young boy in a diminishing culture, his father reassured him that he was just as good as anyone else. He was determined to work hard, and demonstrate his equality regardless of race. He set out to be the best he could be and graduated high school at the early age of fifteen. Martin Luther King Jr. then went to the distinguished school; Morehouse College, where he received a B.A. in 1948. After that he ended up enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953. In 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which organized civil rights activities throughout the United States. In August 1963, he led the great march on Washington, where he delivered this memorable speech in front of 250,000 people gathered by the Lincoln Memorial.
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most memorable speeches that has ever been given. His speech was inspiring and uplifting to many negro citizens of the 1960’s. King presented his speech because even though the Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” this statement is was not exactly true for the African-American society. The white society still disclaimed the African-Americans by making them go to different school and drink from separate water fountains. King was giving his speech to let people know that he was going thr...
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...s just a step away if they just hold true to the actions they have begun until the end. Martin ends his speech uniting the crowd in song. He distinctly chooses “My Country tis of Thee”. He appeals to their ownership of their country and the pride of liberty. If every believer follows through then freedom will ring in a multitude of places spanning the country. Freedom will ring out in places that will affect all people. He concludes, “when we allow freedom ring….all God’s children, black men and white men, Jew and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholic will be able to join hand and sing in the old Negro spiritual:
Free at Last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Martin Luther King Jr. chooses the words for this portion of his speech carefully, choosing many different cultures that have had their own personal struggles for civil rights.
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered as motivation to fight for their rights and help paint the picture of what America could look like in the future. He does this by in the beginning saying that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed African Americans are not treated as normal citizens. By saying this Martin Luther King Jr. was saying we should not just be content with being free from slavery. That now it is time to fight for our rights and to end discrimination because of the color on one’s skin.
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.
Dr. King first starts out all pumped up on a very light note. He is very optimistic about his speech in the very first line. However he bluntly addressed the issues of hardship, which African-Americans endured while America was beginning to become a stronger symbol of hope and freedom. He acknowledged the experience of wealth which his race became accustomed to, the ghetto poverty. He recognized the right of each color and pale man who contains the right to live, liberty, and the pursuit of true happiness. As bluntly as he began his speech, he boldly pointed out the Supreme Law of The Land- the Constitution - and quoted the Declaration of Independence as all.
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 the beginning of his speech Martin Luther heralds back almost one hundred years by linking the importance of the march to the Emancipation Proclamation(King 3). By doing this King puts the issue of equality into a timeline by showing that while it has been a hundred years since African Americans had been given freedom it also shows that while freedom has been granted to them there has still been very little that has happened to give the African race a better life. Not much further in his speech King say, “ This note was a promise that all men-yes, black men as well as white men-would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (King 3) Again by taking an important article from America’s past King says that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution they meant for all Americans to be equal. Midway through the speech King pleads with his people to never resort to violence in the face of adversity that is handed to them by their oppressors, because King has came to realize through his own trials that the “their( referring to the white man)destiny is tied up with our destiny.”(King 3) As King’s speech progresses he tells the masses that until they have their rights be equal to those who rights are unbounded that they must not stop until they have achieved their goal. By being able to use
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.’s “I Have A Dream” speech had a great impact on America and helped shaped the lives of millions. Racism is still a primary issue in America that still needs improvement. The audience was motivated by his powerful speech that he gave on August 28, 1963. The three elements made his speech really effective towards the audience. He used a lot of rhetorical devices especially metaphor in his speech that sparked the audience. Martin Luther King Jr. was a very motivated African American that wanted freedom and equality for the colored. He wanted America to be very
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American baptist minister, Civil Rights activist, and humanitarian. He was born on January 25, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia under the name of Michael King, Jr. Both he and his father later adopted the name of the German protestant leader Martin Luther in honor of him. King thrived at Booker T. Washington High School, graduating at the age of 15 before moving on to Morehouse College. For years, he had questioned religion, but in his third year of college, he took a bible class that renewed his faith. King later went on to study at Crozer theological seminary for three years. He met his future wife during his last year of seminary, and went on to receive his Ph.D in 1955 at the age of 25.
Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X manipulate the audience’s emotions, pathos, throughout the speech. However, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X use pathos in different ways. Martin Luther King Jr. uses pathos to create a patriotic and welcoming feeling throughout the audience. In his opening paragraph, he greets the audience by stating he is “happy” to speak to the audience. Throughout the speech, he includes positive words to reinforce the welcoming feeling such as “hope” (101), “joyous” (101), “magnificence” (101), and “great” (101). In addition, he adds a patriotic feeling in the crowd to show that people of color are not different from white people. He includes an American song, My Country Tis’ of Thee, as well as repeating the word “together” (103) in another paragraph. He uses the last line of My Country Tis’ of Thee, “let freedom ring” (104), towards the end of the speech to emphasize that the people of color are similar to white people. By using the song, he is showing that both African Americans and white people know the song.
Martin Luther King’s speech was made after the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. He delivered the “I Have a dream” speech on the Lincoln Memorial steps. He verbalized this speech to millions of people blacks and whites. This is one of the greatest speeches because it has many elements like repetition, assonance and consonance, pathos, logos, and ethos.
The speaker is Martin Luther King Jr, an African American who had to deal with all the cruelty and unequalness that blacks were getting. The occasion is to get equal rights for everyone in America, no matter their race or gender. The audience that Martin was connecting to was people with authority that would change the conditions of their lives and hardships, but was also to everyone that would listen and would try to make a difference. The purpose for King writing this speech was to get equal rights and show people that everyone is the same. The subject of the speech is the rights of african americans and how they are the same as whites. The tone Martin has is determined and destined to get the outcome the way he wants it to
Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” He inspired Americans to stand up for our country and fight for equal rights. He believed in fighting for what he thought was right and for standing up for our country. He presented his true thoughts and stood proud on those thoughts through everything, and he always believed in having equal rights for the people of our nation. Martin Luther King Jr utilized figurative language through metaphor and analogy in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to passionately engage the crowd to stand up with him and to raise the public attention to end segregation in our country.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy included an effort between all people to spark legislative and social change in society. Martin Luther King often supported working together with different people to achieve success, and he worked with many people, organizations, and presidential administrations to achieve justice and equality for all citizens. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, he spoke of integration between people of different races. He starts every line with “I Have a Dream” to show that his dream in society right at that time was unattainable. He hoped that his children ...
The speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. to the African Americans and to the white Americans in the August of 1963 was undoubtedly a motivator for many. It is no wonder why a vast majority of people living in the United States can recite words from the speech of a now deceased man. Because his language and diction spoke to all believers in freedom as well as to freedom's adversaries, his message was universal and had a meaning to all who heard it. This continues today. Freedom and equality are something to be attained, for all of us.
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.