Similarities Between Coretta Scott King And Oprah Winfrey

Both Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks were incredible, strong women who spent - and risked - their lives fighting for what they believed in and the social justice that they thought their people deserved. Rosa Parks and the infamous Montgomery, Alabama bus ordeal is considered one of the most influential events in black social justice history, and Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s wife, was also an avid social reformer and fought just as hard as her husband to promote equal rights for black people. It’s very fitting, then, that two other celebrity advocates of social justice, Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey, respectively, deliver a eulogy for them. On top of that, Maya Angelou was one of King’s best friends, and had a very close

In their introductions, both women expertly manipulated language techniques and characteristics of ceremonial speaking when telling eulogies. Oprah Winfrey directly mentioned the reverend at the church at which she spoke, she mentioned Parks’ family, her friends, her admirers, and the choir, essentially addressing everyone in the room except Rosa Parks herself. Throughout her introduction, Oprah speaks relatively quickly - not too quickly, but as an audience member, I did not feel the words sinking in before she moved on to her next point - with a few short breaks. I found this ineffective, as, like I said, I didn’t have time to feel the words sink in before Winfrey moved on to the next main point. She asked no rhetorical questions, very little storytelling, and had almost no credibility other than “she was my role model”. Despite these lacking aspects, she did use a quotation, albeit from herself and not from Parks, and included some humor - successfully making her audience laugh. For a eulogy, it seemed fitting - a personal story of what the person meant to the speaker, a lay

Despite the completely different directions that the bodies went in, both speakers end with a promise, some strategic repetition, whether in the form of repetition throughout the speech or another anaphora, and a call to action as their closing remarks. Winfrey attempted to connect back with her audience in the form of the word “we”, but for me it was not enough to make up for the disconnect that I had felt earlier. Her strategic repetition of the phrase “We/I will not be moved” throughout her conclusion and the end of her body paragraphs did an excellent job of tying the speech together, and was probably the most effective and powerful piece of the speech. Her tone and voice got louder and more decisive towards the very end of her speech, which definitely helped audience members get inspired to also not be moved by any social injustice or discrimination. Similarly, Angelou’s conclusion addressed everyone gathered as “we” and told them that “We owe something [to King]”. This was effective because she had been connecting with her audience throughout the entire speech and we could relate to her so much that if she decided that she owed King something, then we could justify owing her something as well. Then, she used repetition in the form of another anaphora with “I mean to say”, again driving in the point of each phrase really effectively.