I Have A Dream Speech

Segregation had been very common in the South, in the 1960’s. Nobody was treated equally, segregation was everywhere and on behalf of Jim Crow laws, inhumane ideas accumulated. African Americans were treated as if they were animals, which is morally wrong. Both the letter and the speech give examples of emotional and logical reasoning to make the reader think and actually feel how the African Americans felt in the rough world during segregation. The letter and speech that are used to compare and also to contrast in rhetorical devices are “I Have A Dream” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Both are written and/or spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Segregation and diversity in the letter and speech are described in logos and pathos to make

King uses reasoning to specify the details about the struggles in African American life during the 1960’s. In “I Have a Dream,” King states the facts about how African Americans are still not free many years later: “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free” (King para. 3). The quote above indicates that after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, 100 years later the African Americans are still treated inhumanely as if the Emancipation Proclamation was never signed. These facts are explained through King’s words as he and many others went through these problems. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King states why he is in Birmingham and who went with him when he says, “So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here” (King para.2). In the quote above, King explains his reasoning as for why he appears in Birmingham. Invited to Birmingham, King had come to help injustice. He already knew on his way there that many will treat him wrong because of the color of his skin, not by personality. Although, Birmingham is one of the most unfair and highly segregated cities in the United States, King is willing to risk his life for the freedom of African