On August 28,1963, a very important speech was given by Martin Luther King Jr. It was a speech that he would become famous for and most of all it would be a speech that would make an impact on the world around him. Martin Luther King Jrs. "I Have a Dream" speech was spoken during a time where racial prejudice and segregation was high in our country, but amid all the intimidation and all the segregation, it sought to end the hate and racism in the United States. This speech cemented King, with the likes of Lincoln, as one of the men who helped shaped the United States of America. However, it still is and it can be described as a fascist time in the history of the United States. Fascism as described in the textbook, Understanding Politics by Thomas M. Magstadt has "enjoyed mass support in many countries largely because of its appeal to nationalism, ethnicity, and (in the case of Nazi Germany) race."(Magstadt 24) This is the time right after World War II, were even though the Nazi's were defeated, and the ideal of a superior race was gone, the United States struggled with its own problem in finding an identity and racial equality of its own people. Dr. King gave this speech during a time of racial Inequality, and very boldly spoke with words that would forever impact the way the people of the United States of America would ever think. However, to this day racial inequality still exists. It lies behind closed doors and things that are not as mainstream now as they used to be. For African Americans, racial equality was an important victory that needed to be one. No one was in there way as much as the Ku Klux Klan. According to our textbook, "The KKK's long history of violence toward African Americans symbolized by the white sheets... ... middle of paper ... ... the majority may decide on may not always be the best thing for the country as a whole. Our country needs leaders and there is no doubt that Martin Luther King Jr. was wanting a leader as well. Whether Barack Obama is the answer to his "dream" or not remains to be seen. Looking back if we were to move toward a government were everybody could be guaranteed equal treatment under the law, it would be great, but it is just not possible because there will always be someone that comes along and changes the way a law should be. However, what cannot be changed is the way people should be treated under that law and that is fairly. Everybody was created equal and everybody should be equal with each other no matter the situation. Work Cited Magstadt, Thomas M. Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
King explained that, even though the laws had granted equal rights to all black people, the white supremacy wasn’t changed just by these acts. To most white people, civil rights movements, only made them realized that how cruel they did to those black people and they should treat them with some decent, but never really led them to think that Black American was as equal as themselves. He also addressed that this dominant ideology led to many structural obstacles, which impeded the implementation of those legislations in almost every structure of life, including the economic market, educational institution and public services. In Education, even many years after the Supreme Court decision on abolishing school segregation, there only a few integration schools existed. The segregated elementary schools received fewer fund and were in the harsher condition and “one-twentieth as many African American as whites attend college, and half of these are in ill-equipped Southern institution”(Reader, p.p.186). In labor market, most of employed Black American were worked in menial jobs and received lower wages even though they did the same works. This racism had already rooted in whole social structures that cannot just be solved by
wanted the civil rights to take place and action. King didn’t want his people to fight against the whites but to only get the same amount of freedom. King wanted everyone to stand up for what they believed in not to stand down. They asked Martin Luther King Jr. “when will you be satisfied?” According to King “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality”. (King) What king was trying to say here was that there is no civil rights being accounted. The blacks get horrible treatment just for the color of their skin. There is discrimination even for the innocent children. Children can not drink at white people water fountains or certain restaurants. The police are also corrupted and give the Negros inhumane
People do not acknowledge the struggles that African Americans had to endure for them to be treated equally, the way a true American is supposed to be treated. One of the ways they were not treated equally was by not being able to participate in sports with whites. From the beginning of our nation, colored people were highly disrespected and treated as if they were some type of animals, which have no say in what happens to them. They were not given any opportunities and were treated harshly because their skin color was different. Whites were able to practically do anything they wanted, unlike blacks, who were racially discriminated or beaten for no apparent reason. African Americans were among the worst treated races in the US; however, this did not stop them from fighting for the rights that so many had died for. It seemed as if black people would never be treated respectfully, but just like in comic books, there is always a hero that will fight for his people. This hero soon came to the scene and he was fierce enough to change the lives of many people. Most importantly, he broke the color barrier and created a path that would allow others to follow. However, something that was inevitable was the threats and racial remarks they had to face.
Dr. King is a man who is over flowed of nothing but creditability. Not once he pointed his finger as a child would and blame the Caucasian men for forcing the African-American to attempt to survive a horrific ordeal of history. He encouraged his brother and sisters of color not to protests with bitter and physical violence but to engage hands and peacefully demand to be treated equally. He encouraged his colored brothers and sisters to go back to where they are from with not despair in their hearts, but hope that one day there will be freedom within reach.
He uses many rhetorical devices proficiently to show that black people and other minorities can overcome segregation. Many African-Americans have been oppressed so much that it is only so much a person can take. They start to give up, but King encourages them that things will eventually change. Blacks have fought to the point where they probably do not have the energy anymore and are tired of waiting. King eventually explains that if they do not keep fighting for what they believe in, then this oppression will never get solved. He also says that the clergymen should recognize the black demonstrators of Birmingham and give them credit for what they have fought for. Not only black people, but white people too. King wants his people to have faith that a change will come, which is why this letter is so significant to society back then and society
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
Dr. King was speaking as if he was Moses on Mount Sinai, bringing down the Ten Commandments. As if he was seated with Christ speaking to his apostles at the last supper. He felt this moment in time, on those steps before the Lincoln Memorial was his time to make his spirit, dedication and fervor for justice for the entire negro race be known from the hilltops of New Hampshire to the slopes of California and back to every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
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
Back then, it came in the form of slavery, later on, it came in the form of segregation. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” (King. 13). If there was one thing that Dr. King learn, it was that those who oppress will never willingly give up the sense of authority over the minority population, to get it, the victims must fight for it. He knew this because of the quite literal "painful experience" that he and the other freedom-fighters endured to get their equality. By summoning the power of the people, Dr. King hopes to stop the gruesome hate crime along with challenging the morality of the church’s on where their attitude towards the movement. Which unfortunately, they chose to alienate themselves from the fight for equal rights in the names for being by the “law and
African Americans waited three hundred and forty years for their rights, but nothing ever happened. King states that the people should unite in order to get something done. They can not rely on the government to free African Americans from the oppression. A quote that supports this is, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”(paragraph 12) What this means is the victims who are being oppressed must fight for their freedom. The society must bond together to actually make a difference and help African Americans to finally be free. If everyone is united, they are going to have a bigger voice, which can influence the rest of the world to fight for
Michael King Jr., Martin Luther King's original name, was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His dad, Michael King Sr., changed his and his sons name to Martin Luther King after he visited Germany in honor of Martin Luther, a religious leader. One day on May of 1941, when Martin was 12 he attempted suicide by jumping off a two story building after learning that his grandmother had passed. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great student, he went to college in Morehouse College to get a sociology degree at the age of 15. Then, Martin joined Boston College to get a doctorate. There he met his wife Coretta Scott. King successfully attained his doctorate at the age of 25 and married
“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” The message that Martin Luther Kings Jr. was trying to get out to the whole world was that even though individuals have the right to have freedom, it doesn’t necessarily mean that freedom should be used to be bitter or hateful toward other people. Directing that hatred toward others because of their race or gender doesn’t provide a positive avenue for change. From my observations, and what I have learned in school, Martin Luther King, Jr was justified in his teachings because even though he wasn’t considered a “slave”, the African American population was still being excluded from all of the rights of an American Citizen.
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.
On one end it truly saddens me that anyone would have to go through discrimination of any kind, and on the other end it is hard to watch the people of this country become angry enough to start riots in their own home town over such a thing. Something important that I learned about Dr. King was that he in fact believed violence and rebellion was not the answer. He endured so much for the people of his race which shows that he beyond doubt thought that change would eventually come for America. From being publicly ridiculed to what I feel being un-justly incarcerated well over a handful of times, I truly believe Mr. King knew his movement would one day change the ways of the American people
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.