Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream

The leader whose methods were most effective during the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr. His main goal during the civil rights movement was to have the whites and the blacks all come together to form equality. He fought for this equality through a nonviolent approach, which granted him respect from different races all over the world. Nonviolence also allowed the African Americans to achieve their goal. Nonviolent marches, sit-ins, and protests all had a huge impact in having Kennedy making a civil rights bill. This strategy would lead to creating peace and having all Americans live in harmony.

In his speech, Dr. king talked about his dream, the dream of Negro: to live equal to the white in America and to see their children treated equally to the white children. In addition to seeing the former slaves ' sons and their owners ' sons sitting down together as brothers, not as slaves and masters. (King, 1968). What stood out for me is that Dr. King repeated “I have a dream.” several times

In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, “I Have a Dream,” given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, he spoke to gain equality for black men, women, and children in the United States of America. It is as if he came to the same realization that his feminist predecessor, Jane Addams, had come to. She had once said, “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life” (Bellecci, 2004, p. 39). Martin Luther King knew that he had freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, but he was not getting them in the same way that his white countrymen were getting them and he was willing to do whatever he could to be considered a true, equal American citizen. However, unlike the likes of other black revolutionaries of the time, such as Malcolm X, MLK was an advocate of peaceful protests even as the white people broke out with violence towards the African American community with every step they took in the war for equality.

Both their speeches, “I Have a Dream” and “The Ballot or the Bullet” may have shared some common traits, but at the same time, differed greatly in various aspects. Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream” is vastly recognized as one of the best speeches ever given. His passionate demand for racial justice and an integrated society became popular throughout the Black community. His words proved to give the nation a new vocabulary to express what was happening to them. Martin was famously a pacifist, so in his speech, he advocated peaceful protesting and passively fighting against racial segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.

Martin Luther King Junior is one of the most influential civil right activists of modern times. Reading this letter has made me wonder how an eloquent man such as Martin Luther King be criticized, imprisoned and eventually assassinated. The issues of segregation have been well worn since Martin Luther King 's time, but his words still hold passion and wisdom. His work on these issues was groundbreaking and I doubt our country would be as it is today if Dr. King had never spoken

Sacrifice: destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else. America was once a great nation because of the incredible sacrifices that were made. America is, still, a great nation, but is lacking the sacrifices that were made years ago. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, went to jail to gain freedom for his people. His powerful words in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” moved his followers to take charge and earn their freedom.

During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. In Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech he effectively uses ethos, diction and powerful metaphors to express the brutality endured by African American people. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Opening his speech Martin Luther King Jr. sets up his credibility with his use of ethos, referring to the Declaration of Independence saying, “This note was a promise that all men… would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life.” He places the strong authority of the declaration on his side to show how the American people are in contradiction to their own “sacred obligation” and the Negros have gotten a “bad check.” A metaphor representing the unfulfilled promise of human rights for the African Americans.

Civil Rights Compare and Contrast In the early 1960’s Martin Luther King Jr. and George Wallace both gave speeches on civil and equal rights, and segregation issues going on at that time. Martin Luther King Jr wanted segregation to end. George Wallace wanted to run for presidency even though he was a liberal judge he used pro-segregation as a platform to gain the southern vote. They both had similarities and differences in Kairos, Ethos, Logos and Pathos. Dr. King and George Wallace had great timeliness for giving their speech, Kairos is the use of timeliness “ the right place and the right time.” (schoology.com) Both men used this point in time to give their speech because it was the beginning of the civil rights movement which benefited both men for different reasons.

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. The “I Have a Dream” speech is well known throughout history to be one of the most famous speeches to be on the subject of civil rights.