argumentative essay on i have a dream speech

A Summary and Analysis of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘I Have a Dream’ is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans.

If you’ve ever stayed up till the small hours working on a presentation you’re due to give the next day, tearing your hair out as you try to find the right words, you can take solace in the fact that as great an orator as Martin Luther King did the same with one of the most memorable speeches ever delivered.

He reportedly stayed up until 4am the night before he was due to give his ‘I Have a Dream’, writing it out in longhand. You can read the speech in full here .

‘I Have a Dream’: background

The occasion for King’s speech was the march on Washington , which saw some 210,000 African American men, women, and children gather at the Washington Monument in August 1963, before marching to the Lincoln Memorial.

They were marching for several reasons, including jobs (many of them were out of work), but the main reason was freedom: King and many other Civil Rights leaders sought to remove segregation of black and white Americans and to ensure black Americans were treated the same as white Americans.

1963 was the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation , in which then US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) had freed the African slaves in the United States in 1863. But a century on from the abolition of slavery, King points out, black Americans still are not free in many respects.

‘I Have a Dream’: summary

King begins his speech by reminding his audience that it’s a century, or ‘five score years’, since that ‘great American’ Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This ensured the freedom of the African slaves, but Black Americans are still not free, King points out, because of racial segregation and discrimination.

America is a wealthy country, and yet many Black Americans live in poverty. It is as if the Black American is an exile in his own land. King likens the gathering in Washington to cashing a cheque: in other words, claiming money that is due to be paid.

Next, King praises the ‘magnificent words’ of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence . King compares these documents to a promissory note, because they contain the promise that all men, including Black men, will be guaranteed what the Declaration of Independence calls ‘inalienable rights’: namely, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

King asserts that America in the 1960s has ‘defaulted’ on this promissory note: in other words, it has refused to pay up. King calls it a ‘sacred obligation’, but America as a nation is like someone who has written someone else a cheque that has bounced and the money owed remains to be paid. But it is not because the money isn’t there: America, being a land of opportunity, has enough ‘funds’ to ensure everyone is prosperous enough.

King urges America to rise out of the ‘valley’ of segregation to the ‘sunlit path of racial justice’. He uses the word ‘brotherhood’ to refer to all Americans, since all men and women are God’s children. He also repeatedly emphasises the urgency of the moment. This is not some brief moment of anger but a necessary new start for America. However, King cautions his audience not to give way to bitterness and hatred, but to fight for justice in the right manner, with dignity and discipline.

Physical violence and militancy are to be avoided. King recognises that many white Americans who are also poor and marginalised feel a kinship with the Civil Rights movement, so all Americans should join together in the cause. Police brutality against Black Americans must be eradicated, as must racial discrimination in hotels and restaurants. States which forbid Black Americans from voting must change their laws.

Martin Luther King then comes to the most famous part of his speech, in which he uses the phrase ‘I have a dream’ to begin successive sentences (a rhetorical device known as anaphora ). King outlines the form that his dream, or ambition or wish for a better America, takes.

His dream, he tells his audience, is ‘deeply rooted’ in the American Dream: that notion that anybody, regardless of their background, can become prosperous and successful in the United States. King once again reminds his listeners of the opening words of the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

In his dream of a better future, King sees the descendants of former Black slaves and the descendants of former slave owners united, sitting and eating together. He has a dream that one day his children will live in a country where they are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

Even in Mississippi and Alabama, states which are riven by racial injustice and hatred, people of all races will live together in harmony. King then broadens his dream out into ‘our hope’: a collective aspiration and endeavour. King then quotes the patriotic American song ‘ My Country, ’Tis of Thee ’, which describes America as a ‘sweet land of liberty’.

King uses anaphora again, repeating the phrase ‘let freedom ring’ several times in succession to suggest how jubilant America will be on the day that such freedoms are ensured. And when this happens, Americans will be able to join together and be closer to the day when they can sing a traditional African-American hymn : ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.’

‘I Have a Dream’: analysis

Although Martin Luther King’s speech has become known by the repeated four-word phrase ‘I Have a Dream’, which emphasises the personal nature of his vision, his speech is actually about a collective dream for a better and more equal America which is not only shared by many Black Americans but by anyone who identifies with their fight against racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination.

Nevertheless, in working from ‘I have a dream’ to a different four-word phrase, ‘this is our hope’. The shift is natural and yet it is a rhetorical masterstroke, since the vision of a better nation which King has set out as a very personal, sincere dream is thus telescoped into a universal and collective struggle for freedom.

What’s more, in moving from ‘dream’ to a different noun, ‘hope’, King suggests that what might be dismissed as an idealistic ambition is actually something that is both possible and achievable. No sooner has the dream gathered momentum than it becomes a more concrete ‘hope’.

In his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, King was doing more than alluding to Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years earlier. The opening words to his speech, ‘Five score years ago’, allude to a specific speech Lincoln himself had made a century before: the Gettysburg Address .

In that speech, delivered at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery (now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in November 1863, Lincoln had urged his listeners to continue in the fight for freedom, envisioning the day when all Americans – including Black slaves – would be free. His speech famously begins with the words: ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’

‘Four score and seven years’ is eighty-seven years, which takes us back from 1863 to 1776, the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, Martin Luther King’s allusion to the words of Lincoln’s historic speech do two things: they call back to Lincoln’s speech but also, by extension, to the founding of the United States almost two centuries before. Although Lincoln and the American Civil War represented progress in the cause to make all Americans free regardless of their ethnicity, King makes it clear in ‘I Have a Dream’ that there is still some way to go.

In the last analysis, King’s speech is a rhetorically clever and emotionally powerful call to use non-violent protest to oppose racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination, but also to ensure that all Americans are lifted out of poverty and degradation.

But most of all, King emphasises the collective endeavour that is necessary to bring about the world he wants his children to live in: the togetherness, the linking of hands, which is essential to make the dream a reality.

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“I Have a Dream” Speech Analysis – Essay

Below, you will discover an “I Have a Dream” analysis essay. It discusses the speech’s significance and critically examines its drawbacks.

Introduction

Significance of the speech in the world today.

• Criticism of the Speech

Works Cited

“I have a dream” speech was given by Martin Luther King on 28 th August 1963. There was an audience of about 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington where the speech was given. This speech was mainly based on the freedom for the black’s referred to as Negros.

He was much concerned about the oppression and exploitation of the black Americans at that time and he wished that people would understand that they were all equal. Unfortunately, Martin Luther king was assassinated on 4 th of April 1968 when he was thirty nine years old. However, Martin Luther king left a legacy and is remembered on Martin Luther King Day every year.

In the course of delivering his speech, Martin Luther King said, “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” (King speeches 1). This statement as he said has remained in our times and this is what has been happening all over the world.

People are fighting for their freedom. He viewed it as an end to all oppression that was continuously being witnessed. This is a sign of new life of freedom and equality. Since he was a theologian, Martin Luther King addressed many injustices according to the Bible.

Martin Luther King was enlightened and was tired of seeing blacks being exploited. He saw that the blacks were enslaved by the whites and yet they were helping them. He said,

One hundred years later, the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely Island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. (Speech 1)

Today many people are being exploited because of their race, tribe and even their origin. Many are living in poverty in the midst of the rich. Martin Luther King had spoken about this in his speech. He regretted that even after the country got a constitution; it did not accomplish the purpose it was meant to accomplish: “This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Speech 1).

This is a fact even in today’s society. Many countries have constitutions made up so as to bring about justice to the people. However, it is very unfortunate because many people are experiencing injustice in form of labor, race and tribe.

Martin Luther King said that, “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment” (Speech 1). This signifies that it was a matter that needed to be addressed in urgency; otherwise it would bring great destruction to the society at large. The same applies to the world today.

If nations do not put away their differences it may lead to great losses to many people, for instance the mass killings which were witnessed in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and even currently the conflicts in the Middle East are consequences of injustices not being addressed urgently (United Human Rights Council 1).

Martin Luther King said, that he had a dream, that every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low meaning that he hoped for a future with equality. This is believed to have become the reality of the dream when, black American Barack Obama became the president of America.

“I Have a Dream” – Critical Analysis

Although the speech is of great significance in our society today critics say that King was excessively rhetorical and that he did not provide a way to solve the many problems he addressed. Others say that some of his work in his doctoral dissertation was plagiarized. This was followed by other responses that disagreed with the statement and said that it had nothing to do with his contribution in the civil rights movement (E-notes 1).

Martin Luther King’s Speech remains important in the modern society. It consists of well founded goals which if well addressed will take many countries up the ladder. However, critics will always be there to search for the wrongs.

E-notes. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 . E-NOTES, 2011. Web.

King speeches. Martin Luther King Jr-I have a Dream speech . Writers Reviews, 2011. Web.

Speech. The I Have a Dream Speech Analysis . Speech topics Help, Advice & Ideas, 2011. Web.

United Human Rights Council. Genocide in Rwanda . United Human Rights Council, 2011. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 28). “I Have a Dream” Speech Analysis – Essay. https://ivypanda.com/essays/i-have-a-dream-speech-analysis/

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "“I Have a Dream” Speech Analysis – Essay." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/i-have-a-dream-speech-analysis/.

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History Resources

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

By tim bailey, unit overview.

This unit is part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Teaching Literacy through History resources, designed to align to the Common Core State Standards. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance. Through a step-by-step process, students will acquire the skills to analyze and assess primary source material.

Over the course of five lessons, students will read, analyze, and gain a clear understanding of "I Have a Dream," a speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr., at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The first four lessons require students to read excerpts from the speech "like a detective." Through summary organizers, practice, and discussion, they will master the technique of identifying key words, creating summaries of document sections and, as an assessment in the final lesson, writing an argumentative essay.

Unit Objectives

Students will be able to

• Read and demonstrate understanding of a complex document
• Identify the main ideas and synthesize and draw logical inferences from the document
• Summarize the author’s words and restate the author’s meaning in their own words
• Write an argumentative essay using evidence from the document to support their ideas

Number of Class Periods

The unit is structured for 5 class sessions, but Lessons 1 and 2 can be combined and Lessons 3 and 4 can be combined. In addition, the essay could be assigned as a take-home exercise.

Grade Level(s)

Common core state standards.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5: Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Historical Background

On August 28, 1963, approximately a quarter million people converged on Washington, DC. They came from all over the United States to demand civil and economic rights for African Americans. Many traveled for days—and at great personal risk—to participate. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies in history. There were fears of violence, but the huge crowd remained peaceful as they marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

The last speech of the day was given by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King drew on history—including the Declaration of Independence’s promise of equality and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation—to highlight how far African Americans were from reaching the American ideal. He urged his audience to demand equal opportunities and access to jobs and facilities and housing and voting. But what transformed the speech into one of the most memorable in American history for the millions of Americans watching and listening in Washington, on radio and on television, was the recurring phrase "I have a dream," repeated eight times with increasing urgency—a dream of what could happen in the nation as well as a more intimate dream of what his own children could achieve when freedom rang everywhere in the United States.

Students will read the first section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Understand what was explicitly stated in the speech
• Draw logical inferences
• Summarize a portion of the speech using the author’s words and then their own words
• Teacher Resource:  "I Have a Dream" Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (excerpts) . Source: Reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright: © 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. © renewed 1991 Coretta Scott King.
• Summary Organizer #1
• Overhead projector, Elmo projector, or similar device

Note: The first lesson is done as a whole-class exercise.

• Tell the students that they will be exploring what Martin Luther King, Jr., said in the "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Resist the temptation to provide more information as you want the students to develop ideas based solely on King’s words.
• Read aloud the excerpts from the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., and ask the students to read it silently to themselves. It is important for the students to experience a text as the writer meant it to be experienced—in this case as a speech before a large crowd.
• Tell the students that they will be analyzing the first selection from the document today and learning how to do in-depth analysis for themselves. The whole class will be going through this process together for the first section of the document.
• Pass out Summary Organizer #1, which includes the first section of the speech. Display the organizer in a format large enough for the whole class to see. Make certain students understand that the original text has been edited for this lesson. Explain the purpose and use of ellipses.
• "Share read" the text with the students. This is done by having the students follow along silently while you begin to read aloud, modeling prosody, inflection, and punctuation. Then ask the class to join in with the reading after a few sentences while you continue to read aloud, still serving as the model for the class. This technique will support struggling readers as well as English language learners (ELL).
• Explain that the objective is to select "Key Words" from the first section and then use those words to create a brief summary of the text that gets at the gist of what Dr. King was saying.
• Guidelines for Selecting Key Words: Key Words are very important contributors to understanding the text. They are usually nouns or verbs. Don’t pick "connector" words ( are , is , the , and , so , etc.). The number of Key Words depends on the length of the original selection. This selection is 249 words long so you can pick up to ten Key Words. The students must know what their Key Words mean, so there will be opportunities to teach students how to use context clues, word analysis, and dictionary skills to discover word meanings.
• Ask the students to select up to ten words from the text that they believe are Key Words and write them down on their organizers.
• Survey the class to find out what the most popular choices were. After some discussion and with your guidance, the class should decide on ten Key Words. For example, let’s say that the class decides on the following words: freedom , Emancipation Proclamation (two words that together make up a single idea can be selected if it makes sense in context), hope , Negro , segregation , discrimination , shameful , Declaration of Independence , promise , and unalienable rights . Now, no matter which words the students had previously selected, have them write the words agreed upon by the class or chosen by you into the Key Word list.
• Explain that the class will use these Key Words to write a brief summary (one or two sentences) that demonstrates an understanding of what King was saying. This exercise should be a whole-class discussion-and-negotiation process. For example, "The Emancipation Proclamation brought hope, but segregation and discrimination are still part of Negro life. That is shameful because the Declaration of Independence promised all people unalienable rights." You might find that the class doesn’t need some of the Key Words, which will make the summary even more streamlined. This is part of the negotiation process. The final sentence(s) should be copied into the organizer.
• Now guide the students in putting the summary sentence(s) into their own words. Again, this is a class negotiation process. For example "African Americans were promised the same rights as everyone else, but that hasn’t happened yet."
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. You could have students use the back of their organizer or a separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the second section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #2

Note: For this lesson, the students will be working with partners and in small groups.

• Review what the class did in the previous lesson and what they decided was the gist of the first selection from King’s speech.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #2 and display a copy in a format large enough for the whole class to see. Tell the students that they will work on the second section of the document with partners and in small groups.
• Share read the second selection with the students as described in Lesson 1.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary of the text using those words, and then restating the summary in their own words to show their understanding of King’s words.
• Pair the students up and have them work together to select the best Key Words. This passage is 258 words, so they can choose up to ten words.
• Now put two pairs of students together. These four students will negotiate with each other to come up with their final ten Key Words. Be strategic in how you make your groups in order to ensure the most participation by all group members.
• Once the groups have selected their Key Words, each group will use those words to create a brief summary (one or two sentences) of what Martin Luther King was saying. During this process, try to make sure that everyone is contributing. It is very easy for one student to take control and for the other students to let them do so. All of the students should write their group’s negotiated sentence into their organizers.
• Ask groups to share out the summary sentences that they have created. This should start a teacher-led discussion that points out the qualities of the various responses. How successful were the groups at getting at King’s main idea, and were they careful to use the Key Words in doing so?
• Now direct the groups to restate their summary sentences in their own words. Again, this is a group negotiation process. After they have decided on a summary, it should be written into their organizers. Again, have the groups share out their responses and discuss the clarity and quality of the responses.
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. If you choose you could have students use the back of their organizer or separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the third section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #3

Note: For this lesson students will work individually unless you decide they still need the support of a group.

• Review what the class did in the previous two lessons and what they decided was the gist of the first two selections.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #3 with the third selection from King’s speech. You may decide to share read the third selection with the students as in prior lessons or have them read it silently to themselves.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary using the key words, and then restating the summary in the students’ own words to demonstrate their understanding of King’s words. This text is 237 words, so the students can pick up to ten words.
• After the students have worked through the three steps, have them share out their summaries in their own words and guide a class discussion of the meaning of the text.
• Wrap up: Discuss vocabulary that the students found confusing or difficult. If you choose you could have students use the back of their organizer or a separate vocabulary form to make a note of these words and their meaning.

Students will read the fourth section of the "I Have a Dream" speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. In a step-by-step process they will identify key words employed by King and then summarize the text to demonstrate that they understand what King was saying.

• Summary Organizer #4

Note: Students will continue to work independently in this lesson.

• Review what the class did in the previous lessons and what they decided was the gist of the first three selections.
• Distribute Summary Organizer #4 with the fourth selection from King’s speech. You may decide to share read the text with the students as in prior lessons or have them read it silently to themselves.
• Review the process of selecting Key Words, writing a summary using the key words, and then restating the summary in the students’ own words to demonstrate their understanding of King’s words. There are 224 words in this selection, so the students can select eight or nine key words.
• After the students have worked through the three steps, have them share out their summaries in their own words and guide a class discussion of the meaning of King’s words.

The class will first review the meaning of each section of Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. Second, the students will look closely at how Dr. King constructed his speech, particularly his choice of words. Finally, they will write about Dr. King’s speech in a short argumentative essay in which they support their statements with evidence taken directly from Martin Luther King’s own words.

• Synthesize the work of the prior four days
• Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of the primary source
• Analyze the writing craft (speech construction, rhetorical style)
• Explain and defend whether they believe the craft and style makes the speech more effective
• Write an argumentative essay based on evidence in the text 
• Summary Organizers #1–4 from previous lessons
• The students should have the four Summary Organizers they completed in the previous lessons.
• Review the work from the previous lessons by asking the students to provide a summary in their own words of each of the four text selections. This is done as a class discussion. Write these short negotiated sentences on the overhead or similar device so the whole class can see them. These summaries should reinforce the students’ understanding of the meaning of King’s speech.
• Discuss with the students Dr. King’s rhetorical style as well as how the construction of the speech affects its meaning. How does repeating certain phrases strengthen his point or focus his arguments? How does the construction help guide the audience?
• If the students do not have experience writing an argumentative essay, proceed with a short lesson on essay writing. Otherwise, have them write a short essay in response to one of the prompts in class or as an out-of-class assignment. Remind the students that they must back up any arguments they make with evidence taken directly from the text of King’s "I Have a Dream" speech. The first prompt is designed to be the easiest.
• What is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream, and according to Dr. King how could it become a reality?
• In his speech Dr. King says that "we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check." What does he mean by this and what, as he sees it, will be the result of this action?
• In his speech, how does Dr. King respond to the question, "When will you be satisfied?" Explain both the reason for this question put to civil rights activists and Dr. King’s response.

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"I Have a Dream"

August 28, 1963

Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the 28 August 1963  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , synthesized portions of his previous sermons and speeches, with selected statements by other prominent public figures.

King had been drawing on material he used in the “I Have a Dream” speech in his other speeches and sermons for many years. The finale of King’s April 1957 address, “A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations,” envisioned a “new world,” quoted the song “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” and proclaimed that he had heard “a powerful orator say not so long ago, that … Freedom must ring from every mountain side…. Yes, let it ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado…. Let it ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let it ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let it ring from every mountain and hill of Alabama. From every mountain side, let freedom ring” ( Papers  4:178–179 ).

In King’s 1959 sermon “Unfulfilled Hopes,” he describes the life of the apostle Paul as one of “unfulfilled hopes and shattered dreams” ( Papers  6:360 ). He notes that suffering as intense as Paul’s “might make you stronger and bring you closer to the Almighty God,” alluding to a concept he later summarized in “I Have a Dream”: “unearned suffering is redemptive” ( Papers  6:366 ; King, “I Have a Dream,” 84).

In September 1960, King began giving speeches referring directly to the American Dream. In a speech given that month at a conference of the North Carolina branches of the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , King referred to the unexecuted clauses of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and spoke of America as “a dream yet unfulfilled” ( Papers  5:508 ). He advised the crowd that “we must be sure that our struggle is conducted on the highest level of dignity and discipline” and reminded them not to “drink the poisonous wine of hate,” but to use the “way of nonviolence” when taking “direct action” against oppression ( Papers  5:510 ).

King continued to give versions of this speech throughout 1961 and 1962, then calling it “The American Dream.” Two months before the March on Washington, King stood before a throng of 150,000 people at Cobo Hall in Detroit to expound upon making “the American Dream a reality” (King, Address at Freedom Rally, 70). King repeatedly exclaimed, “I have a dream this afternoon” (King, Address at Freedom Rally, 71). He articulated the words of the prophets Amos and Isaiah, declaring that “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” for “every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low” (King, Address at Freedom Rally, 72). As he had done numerous times in the previous two years, King concluded his message imagining the day “when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing with the Negroes in the spiritual of old: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” (King,  Address at Freedom Rally , 73).

As King and his advisors prepared his speech for the conclusion of the 1963 march, he solicited suggestions for the text. Clarence  Jones   offered a metaphor for the unfulfilled promise of constitutional rights for African Americans, which King incorporated into the final text: “America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned” (King, “I Have a Dream,” 82). Several other drafts and suggestions were posed. References to Abraham Lincoln and the  Emancipation Proclamation  were sustained throughout the countless revisions. King recalled that he did not finish the complete text of the speech until 3:30 A.M. on the morning of 28 August.

Later that day, King stood at the podium overlooking the gathering. Although a typescript version of the speech was made available to the press on the morning of the march, King did not merely read his prepared remarks. He later recalled: “I started out reading the speech, and I read it down to a point … the audience response was wonderful that day…. And all of a sudden this thing came to me that … I’d used many times before.... ‘I have a dream.’ And I just felt that I wanted to use it here … I used it, and at that point I just turned aside from the manuscript altogether. I didn’t come back to it” (King, 29 November 1963).

The following day in the  New York Times,  James Reston wrote: “Dr. King touched all the themes of the day, only better than anybody else. He was full of the symbolism of Lincoln and Gandhi, and the cadences of the Bible. He was both militant and sad, and he sent the crowd away feeling that the long journey had been worthwhile” (Reston, “‘I Have a Dream …’”).

Carey to King, 7 June 1955, in  Papers  2:560–561.

Hansen,  The Dream,  2003.

King, Address at the Freedom Rally in Cobo Hall, in  A Call to Conscience , ed. Carson and Shepard, 2001.

King, “I Have a Dream,” Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in  A Call to Conscience , ed. Carson and Shepard, 2001.

King, Interview by Donald H. Smith, 29 November 1963,  DHSTR-WHi .

King, “The Negro and the American Dream,” Excerpt from Address at the Annual Freedom Mass Meeting of the North Carolina State Conference of Branches of the NAACP, 25 September 1960, in  Papers  5:508–511.

King, “A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations,” Address Delivered at St. Louis Freedom Rally, 10 April 1957, in  Papers  4:167–179.

King, Unfulfilled Hopes, 5 April 1959, in  Papers  6:359–367.

James Reston, “‘I Have a Dream…’: Peroration by Dr. King Sums Up a Day the Capital Will Remember,”  New York Times , 29 August 1963.

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I Have A Dream: 8 Heart-Stopping Rhetorical Techniques Of King’s Speech (Updated 2024)| Writer’s Relief

by Writer's Relief Staff | Creative Writing Craft and Techniques | 25 comments

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Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech was a life-affirming call to all people to live together in love. But it was something else too: a literary masterpiece. King taught us a lot about peace and understanding, but we at Writer’s Relief believe he also has a lot to teach writers about rhetoric.

Studying King’s rhetorical techniques is a great way to shore up your craft, leading to more memorable poems or characters .

Rhetorical Techniques Of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” Speech

Alliteration . King’s phenomenal ear for the music of language is legendary—and we hear the lyricism of his prose in his alliterations.

Example: Rise from the dark and desolate…the marvelous new militancy…trials and tribulations…

Allusion . King’s speech reaches well beyond his words. He points to shared references that are already heavily loaded with built-in emotion.

Example:   Five score years ago, a great American…signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Example: Many references and quotes from “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” and “Free at Last.”

Amplification . This happens when a writer makes a point twice in a row, with greater emphasis, details, or explanation the second time—thus, amplifying it. It’s powerfully effective.

Example: America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

Antithesis . This is a contrast made clear by using contrasting language. In the following, King places color/content and skin/character side by side, drawing our attention to radically different ways of seeing the world.

Example: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Conduplicatio . This is the repetition of a word or phrase, often at the beginning of a series of sentences or phrases.

Example: Repetition of sentences beginning with “I have a dream.”

Litotes . You may be using litotes without even knowing it. By using understatement, along with a double negative, King draws our attention in.

Example: I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.

Metaphor . We’re not talking about “the cloud was a ball of cotton candy.” We’re talking hard-hitting metaphors that aren’t just about making comparisons but about stirring emotions.

Example: [The Emancipation Proclamation] came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.  

Example: We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

Parallelism . With parallel phrasing, King carries his message with engaging, memorable rhythm. Isn’t it gorgeous how the passage below builds?

Example: We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together…

One More Thing We Learn About Rhetoric From Martin Luther King, Jr.

While we’ve taken a moment to dissect some of King’s rhetorical techniques, there’s one key thing that makes this speech such a standout: heart. Separating King’s talent as a writer from his passion for his cause is impossible; the success of this particular speech comes from the combination of passionate caring AND eloquence.

While we cannot expect anyone to come close to what Dr. King was able to achieve, take a moment to learn from his rhetorical techniques. Once you’ve polished your writing, Writer’s Relief can help you pinpoint the best literary agents or journals for your work. Learn more about our services and submit your work to our Review Board today!

Whether you want to take the traditional publishing route or prefer to self-publish , we can help. Give us a call, and we will point you in the right direction!

25 Comments

Great speech always and thanks for highlighting those eight. If however i were to edit that speech today, “trials and tribulations” will be expunged for being cliched. See how the times change!

thanks for this.. it will help me a lot.

thanks for this, really helped..

Thanks heaps…very helpful! thanks again!

Thanks for sharing Dr. King’s speech as part of writing effective and creative words. He was an intelligence human-being and brought great clarity into this world with his thoughts and beliefs. His writing proved to be professional and well-polished. He was an eloquent speaker. This was a great man who helped changed the world for the better not only in his writing but his disciplinary ways and thought pattern. I learned a lots from this article.

free at last free at last, thank god almighty free at last

Thanks, really helped me with my homework! 🙂

Am kenyan, living in kenya, staying hopeful in kenya and dreaming in Kenya. this speech lingers in my mind when i think of the poverty eating up the country’s stability. it is not just a speech but a prayer as well

Thanks. This is a big help for annotating this great speech. I get goosebumps every time i hear it.

Thanks,to this speech i’ve got my home work right

What are some more examples of parallelism

Bessie, we found this that might help you.

thnx .it really help me with my home work

thanks great help

Very helpful! Could you do more of the speech?!

Thank you for your comment! We will certainly consider it.

I have speech techniques maybe it might help you guys when you are reading a speech to a crowd or to your class, the best techniques are to: 1. be confident 2. use persuasive words 3. use a lot of rhetoric 4. don’t move your legs or swing your arms 5. when reading your speech don’t say ‘umm’ 6. if you get a little shy then look at something and don’t stop looking at it. this actually works thank you for reading

I need specific strategies.

Hello Daysie, Please browse the Writer’s Relief website for informative and informational articles regarding writing techniques and strategies. Thank you.

I found this speech was very powerful, encouraging and helpful. I didn’t really understand anything about rhetorical techniques, but after reading this article and the breakdown of techniques I have a better understanding. It definitely helped me to understand which technique I generally use.

Thank you for teaching me about Rhetorical Techniques. This was an excellent choice that captured my attention “I Have A Dream” Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King.

this helped with a short essay. I also just wanted to comment because im the first comment in more than 4 years. 🙂

Thanks, Vinny! Make sure to cite us properly.

I’ve taught English from elementary through college, keying I on writing. This article is invaluable. I’m retired, getting old (ummm), but I’ll never outgrow good human advice. At 76, I’m still going to find ways to use this. For example, World Day of Prayer March, 2024 is based on “I beg you, bear one another in love…” which captures MLK’s passion and humanity.

Thank you, Denna!

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Argumentative Essay On I Have A Dream Speech

Two score and 13 years ago people with colored skin were being segregated for everyday activities like drinking from a water fountain and going to school. Martin Luther King and many others were tired of not getting the treatment they were promised as a whole, so Martin Luther King wrote his famous “I have a Dream” speech, to address the problem that was sweeping the nation. He wanted to persuade the nation to treat Black people with equality and respect. The black population was not going to rest until they received their rights that they were promised when Abraham Lincoln said the “Emancipation Proclamation” . King has a dream and has faith that one day everyone will be equal, everyone will have rights, and that there will be everlasting …show more content…

These people have a passion for what they are protesting for, and the fight for rights will never die off until the black people of America have the equal rights and respect as a white man. Just like king said, “And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the negro is granted his citizenship rights.” The way he states his idea of unrest of the nation till rights are granted really puts an urgency into his ideas, and makes them seem as they are, which is the most important issue in the nation. This idea also develops his central idea in a deep way that says he wants everlasting equality, and there will be an everlasting fight until rights are granted. This really persuades his audience to realize that his idea he is putting in the reader 's head is really the best choice for the nation, and says that America will continue to be fair and equal, because there will be nothing unjust or unfair to fight about. He really supports this idea using rhetorical devices to further strengthen the central idea as a whole. He uses ethos as shown in this quote, “ … our bodies, full of fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities,” to persuade his audience that there should be equality by explaining how blacks have a lower quality of life as whites in this supposedly equal nation. People

Examples Of David Walker's Appeal

The way he talks about the black slave’s actions towards the whites and how blacks have a kinder soul than the whites. He says that “… there is a solemn awe in the hearts of blacks, as it respects murdering men: whereas the whites, (though they are great cowards) …, they murder all before them…” (pg. 24). In the story, he tells about the black woman helping the white man runaway this how he explains it. He sees that even though blacks have that kind part in them that to live and go against the whites being nice ever so little will hurt the whole operation. This article really spoke to the blacks about unity and that the only way to achieve that is to only care for one another and not the whites.

Summary Of 1829 By David Walker

Throughout his appeal he says that the African Americans come to serve servitude as they are brought or kidnapped to the United States. They come scared because they do not know what is going to happen but as they come into the United States they are welcomed into a hell on Earth. Another point that he fights in his appeal is that African American in 1829 or in that time did not care about their positions in life. Some African Americans were happy in their job duty of just cleaning and shining boots for example. And he

Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

He continued to talk about how the oppressed cannot stay oppressed forever. How the “american negro” has been oppressed for hundreds of years and how they can smell the freedom. He quoted Abraham Lincoln saying “This nation cannot survive half slave half free”(p.574). In his own thoughts he meant this to represent half African-American, half white, cannot survive in this nation. Segregation cannot survive, only a nation as a

He also uses his extent knowledge to mention that they have waited 340 years for their constitution and god given right. And how his people are addressed outside in the streets as "nigger". He explained equality by connecting it to all humans no matter what the race and a universal justice. He uses powerful men from the past to help convince the reader of the injustice that is brought upon them through segregation. Men that are well respected followed throughout history.

Similarities Between I Have A Dream And Letter From Birmingham Jail

King says, “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and god given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter...” This explains that, while other countries are closer and closer to the end of segregation, Birmingham is still at step one. Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech is emotional because he has to think and reminisce about all of the things that he, as an individual, has encountered and witnessed. It is easy to see that it’s emotional.

What Is Mlk Thesis In Letter From Birmingham Jail

He says “We waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional God-given rights.” Therefore since slavery has started the black man have been wrongfully treated, so giving it time or encouraging other black communities to sit and be patience wasn’t an option anymore. In detail he made a list of abuses the black man endured, among these abuses is his experience explaining to his daughter why she can’t go to an amusement park because of her skin color. Also explains how the white men take a black man’s name and change, first name “nigger” middle name “boy” (King1125). Lastly how the black man live in everyday fear, from day to night not knowing what’s coming next or if there is even a tomorrow.

Examples Of What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July

Dr. King decided to take action and stand up for equal rights. The equal rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr., would challenge people’s beliefs, as well as their character. Dr. King had a dream that all people colored or not would be able to live together in this world in harmony. Martin Luther King Jr, states himself, “No, no we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This quote from the “I Have a Dream Speech,” is telling us why not one person should be glad with their situation, until justice has been put into place and you are satisfied with the outcome.

Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail' And 1963

In 1963 Dr.King went to Washington DC to talk in front of thousands in front of the Lincoln Memorial about protesting against discrimination and to fight for freedom and equality being his most famous speech. The following are quotes from his I have a Dream speech. “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice” This quote was meant to inspire people to believe in change and for a brighter future. “One day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with the little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” The idea of kids standing together one day no matter of skin color inspired people to take a stance against segregation making everyone seen as equal.

American Imperialism Dbq Essay

In 1963 Washington D.C the “I Have A Dream” speech verbally accorded to people in hope of change (Document F). According to Martin Luther King Jr there are seven racist states, in these southern states the people are conservative and discriminate against colored people. Martin Luther King Jr believed in standing up together knowing freedom will rain everywhere, one day colored people will no longer have laws hindering their rights. With freedom of rights states should be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. Even referencing the event of claiming our freedom from Great Britain, the Declaration of Independence.

Civil Rights Activists: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Famous civil rights activists and Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. A person’s character is important when it comes to leadership, friendships, and relationships. Having character comes with trust, honesty, and heart. But, when people begin to burn down churches, lynching others, accusing innocent boys for rape or gunning down innocent people because of the color of their skin, something is wrong. Dr.King’s dream was unity between African Americans and whites.

Man Of La Mancha Play Analysis

In the “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. talks about how he has a dream. In this universal ideal, he imagines a society of acceptance to others. He shares his alternate reality while the exact same opposite is going on at the same time. Negroes are treated unfairly by society, even though the Emancipation Proclamation was already signed and put into place. However, the legal document only protects the freedom of the black, not their rightful place in society.

Logical Appeals In Letter From Birmingham Jail

(NEEDS WORK) The emotional appeal of the speech is very easy to find. For example, “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds”.” Martin Luther King Jr. is saying that America is not giving his people the rights that are guaranteed in the constitution.

Thesis Statement On Malcolm X

3. He is implying that this election year, African Americans have no intentions of having a friendly and peaceful protest march. Excessive violence will be used and whatever the outcome may be including death hence his statement of “They're going with one way tickets,” African Americans were willing to “go out with a fight “while fighting for true equality. Subtopic 3) Appeal to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Subtopic 3a) a rhetorical tactic, modes of persuasion used to convince his audience 1) Appeal to Ethos: “Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences.”

Informative Essay On I Have A Dream Speech

That speech was an inspiration to millions of African-American people. One line in the speech that was very inspirational was “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together in the table of brotherhood”(King263). In this line he is trying to say that segregation will end. When it does it will not matter what color you are we are all equal. This also helps because if the marches are peaceful, people will come together in a nonviolent way.

Argumentative Essay About Dreams

Dreaming is a huge part of people’s lives. Dreams happen to everybody and are different to everybody. They tell a lot about a person’s life. Dreams are viewed differently by so many people. People have opinions on what makes dreams happen, what dreams are, and what they mean.

More about Argumentative Essay On I Have A Dream Speech

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Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March on Washington.

Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Below is a transcript of his celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. NPR's Talk of the Nation aired the speech in 2010 — listen to that broadcast at the audio link above.

Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders gather before a rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. National Archives/Hulton Archive via Getty Images hide caption

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

Code Switch

The power of martin luther king jr.'s anger.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. 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.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

Martin Luther King is not your mascot

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Civil rights protesters march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Throughline

Bayard rustin: the man behind the march on washington (2021).

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: for whites only.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

How The Voting Rights Act Came To Be And How It's Changed

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

People clap and sing along to a freedom song between speeches at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Express Newspapers via Getty Images hide caption

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the power of collective memory

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This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.

Correction Jan. 15, 2024

A previous version of this transcript included the line, "We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." The correct wording is "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now."

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“I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Speech Analysis

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Most of all speeches are delivered with the aim to make a certain influence on the listener. For this reason, persuasive speeches, despite having different subjects and patterns of organization, have some characteristics that indicate that the speech is written to convince. Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” on a necessity of equality of all people and emancipation of African Americans, which was promised by the Declaration of Independence and Emancipation Proclamation decree, is a perfect example of a persuasive speech with careful use of Aristotle’s concepts of ethos, pathos and logos and different patterns and stylistic devices that make the speaking more convincing.

Martin Luther King adheres to different rhetorical strategies to make an appeal to the audience, to convince it to approve his view. First, it is necessary to admit he uses logos to provide a support for the ideas he expresses. There are examples of deductive reasoning in the speech. Talking about the promises and liberties guaranteed to all people, Martin Luther King concludes that African Americans must be free as well as white people who live in the United States of America (King, 1963). Apparently, he forms a judgment on generalization about all people and narrows it to black people who live in the U.S. It is possible to find examples of inductive reasoning as well. The narrator speaks about unfair treatment of black people and then claims that this fact is a sign of the fall of justice in the USA in general (King, 1963), which will, without doubt, influence all people.

Ethos is also effectively used in the speech. Being an ethical appeal on the author, ethos makes the audience trust the narrator, approve his position or her and follow the suggestions the author makes. Martin Luther King refers to sources that are trustworthy and reliable. For instance, he mentions the statements proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (King, 1963). The narrator also quotes King James Version of Holy Bible, which is respected by almost all listeners: “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together” (King, 1963). One point about ethos that is not followed by Martin Luther King is stating the opposing position. He does not provide the information that slavery might bring some benefits to the country as he is totally against it. However, this ignorance of mentioning the fact of such kind is even more effective as in this case, the narrator appeals to the sensibilities and emotions of the audience. It is possible to say, he uses pathos instead of ethos in some parts of his speech.

Another example of ethos is establishing common ground with the audience. Martin Luther King is black, he speaks about black, many of the audience were black. It was an additional “bonus” for the speaker. He sets himself equal to all people who listen to him as he shares widely supported opinions about emancipation of black people, he respects and adheres to the Bible (that is a sign of establishing common ground as almost all people at that time in the USA were Christians), and he talks about the ideas expressed in the government documents that should be abided and respected by all people who live in the United States of America. With the help of emotionally strong words, the narrator expresses his personal interest in the subject. He also uses singular and plural first person pronouns “I” and “We” to show that he is an active participant in the case and that he is concerned with the issue. Martin Luther King does not use excessively long sentences, structures that are hard to follow, and for this reason, his speech is comprehended in a better way and, therefore, it makes greater influence on the audience.

Pathos, as emotional appeal, is used the most effectively and the pathos strategies make Martin Luther King’s speech very persuasive. For instance, the narrator uses different grammar structures that are emotionally loaded: “Now is the time” (King, 1963). He also uses imperative sentences to make the readers approve his suggestions, support his view, for instance, he says “Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive” and “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed” (King, 1963). These sentences make people have the same attitude to the problem and call them for action. Martin Luther King uses such synonymic adjectives to describe the problem and to make the audience care about it: “withering”, “languished”, “sweltering” and others (King, 1963). Consequently, the speaker appeals to emotions of the listeners.

There are different examples of stylistic devices that make the text persuasive in Martin Luther King’s speech. The narrator often uses repetitions to make the audience pay attention to the main points and to convince it: “Now is the time”, “I have a dream”, “Let freedom ring”, “One hundred years later”, “We refuse to believe”, “We can never be satisfied”, “With this faith” and others (King, 1963). One can find an example of analogy: King compares civil rights of people to a check, with an emphasis of the neglecting black people rights and economic concern of the government. The narrator also uses simile to compare two things and makes the audience feel the difference and similarity: “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream”” (King, 1963). Here is an allusion to the Bible. The example of metaphor is “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope” (King, 1963). There are some other devices used in the speech to make it more emphatic. With the help of them, the narrator makes his speech inspirational, makes the audience pay attention to the issue and calls it for action.

All in all, Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” is very persuasive. The narrator effectively uses persuasive rhetorical strategies, such as ethos, pathos and logos (deductive and inductive reasoning) that make the author trustworthy and convince the audience to believe in the truthfulness of the opinions expressed by the narrator. The speaker also uses emphatic structures, emotionally loaded words and different stylistic devices to make the audience more concerned and convince it to fight for the rights of black people in the United States. Therefore, Martin Luther King appeals to various persuasive arguments in order to be heard and supported.

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What are the facets of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream? Are these realistic or idealistic? Can they be accomplished?

Dr. King advocated for nonviolent responses to police brutality. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Michael Brown, and other acts of police brutality, what might Dr. King advise? What would he say in a speech on the subject?

In what ways is “I Have a Dream” a speech for a specific time and place, and in what ways is it universal? Does reading it more than a half century later change its meaning and if so, how?

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Example Of Martin Luther King Argumentative Essay

Rhetoric in martin Luther king Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

Introduction.

Example of argumentative essay on martin luther kings rhetorical strategy in his 1963 i have a dream speech, introduction, argumentative essay on beauty is in the eye of the beholder, introduction and thesis statement:.

One may see beauty in several forms but essentially this is how we perceive others in our own light. McCuen Metherell and Winkler advise that one can take a story regarding a film as a typical example and look at the diverse aspects of beauty as perceived here (McCuen Metherell, Winkler Ch 10). Although American Beauty is a film which may perhaps not fit the bill perfectly in this respect, the authors in the book will most certainly appreciate the techniques and skills which are used to focus on beauty as an intrinsic natural issue.

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