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Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Final Speech

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On April 3, 1968 King delivered his final speech “I’ve been to the mountaintop,” in Memphis Tennessee to a massive crowd at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple Church of God. His speech was to bring awareness to the unsafe working condition and wages that the African American sanitation workers received. Prior to Reverend King’s speech on Feb. 12, 1968 roughly one thousand black Memphis sanitation workers went on strike and refused to work until their demands were met. Unfortunately, their request was denied and King, as well as Reverend James T. Lawson, traveled to Memphis to lead a nonviolent march but some of the participants started to become violent breaking windows of building and looting. This was a setback for the peaceful boycott due to rowdy few one person was shot and killed. Troubled by the outcome of the march King, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and Benjamin Hooks returned to Memphis to hold an assembly to reinforce the nonviolent movement. The words of the King echoed the large venue and left a lasting impression on the crowd using rhetorical devices such as metaphors and imagery also including analogies. …show more content…

Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil right activist who fought for the right and equality of African American citizens. In his speech, he stressed that nonviolence was a more effective way to success. One of the rhetorical devices that was key was his persona. His persona showed his followers that with patience and persistence change will come. In his speech, King spoke about the march in Birmingham, Alabama, where he and his friend Bull Connor lead. During this event, there were dogs sicced on them as they sang and how they were sprayed with water hoses then arrested. He spoke and said that while all this was happening they remain peaceful, by doing say they

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