Civil Rights Compare and Contrast
1963 in America, two important figures in the Civil Rights movements now have given important speeches at respectable venues . We have George Wallace giving the “Segregation now,Segregation forever” speech upon winning the Alabama governorship in Montgomery, Alabama. In Washington D.C. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial coinciding with the Washington March for jobs and freedom. I, we will attempt to define these speeches by way of Rhetorical appeals; Ethos, Pathos, Logos and Kairos.
We will examine George Wallace by rhetorical appeal, Pathos. Pathos is a quality that evokes emotion. You can bet that Wallace has evoked emotion from his speech. Racist and segregational practices by the white man has to spark emotion of some kind. When Wallace gets up on a podium and says”segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”, while raising his fist in the air you can assure that he is emotionally but foolishly firing up Wallace followers,mostly white. Especially in the south.Wallace seems to have a large following by those who heard or knew him. The speech was an emotion bomb in the South. In his speech he heeds,”the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South”(5). Or Wallace declares, “Hear me Southerners or from the hearts of the Southland….your heart has never left Dixieland”(5).The emotion was felt in the South and for Gov. George Wallace.
We will examine Martin Luther King by way of Pathos.
Dan T. Carter’s book The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics chronicles the rise and fall of George Wallace, a populist who abandoned his ideals to become a national symbol of racism. In chapter eleven, the book takes a look at the “southernization” of American politics, with a special focus on the 1968 presidential election. This chapter discusses how Richard Nixon used his “Southern Strategy”, George Wallace’s “Wallace Factor”, and how Wallace’s political style helped the Republican Party rise in the South. Richard Nixon saw the fractures in the Solid South that were caused by Civil Rights legislation as a way to draw in Democrats living in southern states that
Wallace gave his speech in the south because durning the 1960’s
I Have a Dream’s Rhetoric A momentous day in history is exalted by the enthralling speech and resonating imagery of a man whom wanted to make a difference. Just over 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was implemented, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a very riveting speech to over 250,000 Americans during the March on Washington, the nation’s largest demonstration of peaceful protest. With peace typically comes logic of which King very much emanated from his speech. With powerful rhetoric, King captivated an entire crowd and subsequently the entire nation with emphasizing while being freed from the travesty that was slavery people of color are still placed in chains by society’s gruesome yet commonplace demarcations.
President Johnson includes pathos in his speech by his use of diction and
Martin Luther King Jr. was an important figure in gaining civil rights throughout the 1960’s and he’s very deserving of that title as seen in both his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” letter. In both of these writings Dr. King uses logos - logical persuasion - and pathos - emotional appeal - to change the opinions of people who were for segregation and against civil rights. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. MLK uses both ways to gain the attention and agreement of the audience but, he uses pathos not just more, but in a more relatable way in order to appeal to his audience.
George Wallace was the 45th governor of Alabama. He too believed that blacks should be treated equally. When the officers were arresting people, they arrested Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of the people who led the marchers from Selma to Montgomery.
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a famous speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and freedom, this speech was called “I have a dream.” This speech was focused on ending racism and equal rights for African Americans during the civil rights movement. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. Martin Luther King Jr. displays pathos by targeting the audience’s emotion by talking about his American dream that could also be other peoples too. He shows logos by giving a sense of hope to the people that better things will come in time.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave us one of one of the most rhetorically moving speeches ever given. Titled as the “I Have a Dream Speech,” he read this speech to the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. As a civil right mover he gave this great speech to all Americans (black and white) so that he could give off the idea of equality on the same level. Because of his crowd of mix races King made sure to make his speech imploring to all no matter what the race that they may be. He uses metaphorical imagery, powerful diction,and symbolism to create an impact on the audience.
March Rhetorical Analysis The 1960’s civil rights movement often used persuasive language to echo the unheard voices of many individuals. Some more than others possessed the ability to exercise their potent use of language to bring forward prominent changes. In the book, March by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, eloquent methods of speech play an important role. John Lewis, Martin Luther King, and George Wallace are some that expressed their beliefs through persuasive empowering words.
“In expressing [his own emotions] with such powerful eloquence, in connecting strongly with the emotions of his listeners, and in convincing them to empathize with others, Dr. King demonstrated emotional intelligence decades before the concept had a name”(“Dr. Martin”). He demanded to end racism throughout the entire United States. King utilized repetition, metaphors, diction and rhetorical devices, that provokes ethos and pathos, throughout his speech in order to connect with his audience as well as to motivate them to stand up and fight for their freedom they well-deserve. One of the most used literary elements throughout Martin Luther King’s speech are diction, which leads to rhetorical devices such as, ethos, logos, and pathos.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the African American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, he was known for his nonviolent movements and methods of protesting. This involved many African American citizens to take verbal and physical abuse from the police and not being able to do anything about it. He used his words to inspire the nation into taking action, instead of promoting violence. Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of thousands of United States citizen from all different backgrounds at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Kings uses ethos to point out why segregation was unjust and to justify why African Americans deserves the same rights as the white citizens of the United States.
To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of King’s ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. To this day, King’s speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in
In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered one of the most influential and impactful speeches in history. King's I Have a Dream speech was consistently powerful assertions of emotional appeals, repetition and paradox. In King’s speech, he utilizes pathos to build a relationship between his black and white audience. This is evident through his references to both black and white children and the history of slavery which appealed to the audience members of the older generation.
In Martin Luther King’s famous speech, King argued for freedom of African Americans by using metaphors to illustrate the serious effects and tolerance of discrimination in society. To motivate the public to take action, King created a scenario on how the Africans were treated amongst their white peers. “ the negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” Moreover, King used a metaphor to highlight the ignorance of African Americans by representing their isolation as an “island of poverty”. In addition, he represented the white people’s capability of wealth in the perspective of an African American as being “in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity”. In other words, the effects of
On August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech entitled "I Have a Dream". The purpose of Martin Luther King 's speech was to make Americans of all racial backgrounds aware of the racial, civil, and economic inequality that was taking place in the United States. Martin Luther King 's speech was intended to bring awareness of the problem of inequality and to give Americans hope and faith that one day everyone, black and white, would be equal. King states in his speech that when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it gave hope to millions that had experienced injustice and inequality, and his expectation was to bring hope to Americans by delivering this speech just as Lincoln