Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

On August 28, 1963 over 200,000 people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his infamous speech entitled “I Have a Dream.” King’s speech, “I Have a Dream,” would initiate a change in the hearts and minds of even the most close minded Americans during the apex of the civil rights movement in America. He was able to stand up and inspire a torn and corrupt nation to action with his powerful speech. King was able to masterfully incorporate pathos and ethos in his rhetoric speech in order to supply proof to all Americans that racism and segregation was not our Founding Father’s intention for America.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had the ability to stir emotion in the hearts of both black and white Americans through his use of pathos. Knowing

Martin Luther King Jr. established credibility with his audience through the use of ethos. In his speech, he uses the Declaration of Independence to invoke authority for his cause. King states, “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” (1). By quoting the Declaration of Independence, he is establishing that the supreme law of the land is on his side. Another figure that King analyzes to established credibility with his audience his Abraham Lincoln. King declares, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation proclamation” (1). King’s use of Lincoln brought a certain authority into his speech that could not be obtained otherwise. Lincoln was a great man who empowered the American people throughout the civil war, he gained the trust of his country by establishing a new sense of freedom. Martin Luther King is invoking the authority of Lincoln and his view on civil rights by quoting this infamous leader. King sets up his own credibility by tapping into the authority of a great American and our