Racism has been an important issue that plays a huge role in today’s society. In Roy Peter Clark’s article “Why it worked”, he expressed his views on Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union”. Also comparing it to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In Obama’s speech he discussed the constitution and racial segregation in America, and the comments made by Reverend J. Wright, his former pastor. He also tells a little about his racial background. He briefly addresses the issues he finds with racism, and focusing on the important main goal of unity in America. Obama stated many things in his speech, which Clark states related to four rhetorical strategies: The power of allusion, parallelism, the “two-ness” of texture, and autobiography. Therefore, making his speech very influential to Obama getting his point across.
In the 1960s the African Americans were freed, but did they really have all the rights they were promised? Racial conflicts were everywhere. Lyndon B. Johnson was current president and was trying to encourage congress to pass a bill called The Voting Rights Act. To influence the vote he gave the speech “We Shall Overcome.” In “We Shall Overcome” President Lyndon Johnson used ethos, pathos, logos, and other rhetorical devices such as allusions, repetition and appeals to authority to persuade congress to pass the act.
Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 delivered one of the most iconic speeches in American History. His delivery infuses us with such raw power and emotions that poured out from the bottom of his heart will change the hearts and minds of Americans for ages to come. Abraham Lincoln did not just write one speech he made five different copies with different sentence structure and paragraph structure, to show how important the layout of the message and how it needed to be simple and to the point. Dissecting “The Gettysburg Address” we begin to understand Abraham Lincoln’s heart lies, he reminds everyone about our past and that we should honor those who fought for our freedom; he tells us “All men are created equal” only to show us what we need to work on as people in the present, he spreads hope for the future and encourages us to grow together
In the 1960’s during the era of the Civil Rights movement, America had been divided by the voting rights that were not given to the African Americans. Although, a decade ago the African Americans had been freed from slavery, but they were still not considered “equal” because they weren't able to vote. The discrimination in the area even had political leaders affected, therefore many of those political leaders during that time attempted to put an end to the several agonizing events going on. Lyndon B Johnson, a white persistent president speaks out to the lawmakers using compassionate encouraging appeals about voting for Civil Rights, in order to unify the nation “to build a new community”. President Johnson utilizes many devices in his speech such as anaphora, emotional appeals, and
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. These purposes can be similar, or different. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing.
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. King’s dialect showed the audience civil right issues, involving many rhetorical strategies using ethos, logos, and pathos, to a racially tempered crowd whom he viewed as different, but not equal.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” King’s words immaculately depict Booker T. Washington’s methods of ending discrimination in the Jim Crow south. While King’s words perfectly depict Washington’s philosophy, they directly rebut against WE.B Dubois’ methods of ending discrimination in the Jim Crow south. Even though both men agreed that African Americans deserved the fair treatment, they combatted viewpoints on how to resolve the issue. Booker T. Washington believess that African Americans should be proficient in manual labor before even considering the possibilities of political positions or equal rights, on the other hand, W.E.B
On March 4, 1858, Senator James Henry Hammond from South Carolina, delivered a compelling speech. He encompassed a variety of thoughts into his speech to reflect how slavery existed in the South which benefitted countries in Europe. As a matter of fact, he wanted to present the speech to the Senate to show how much work the slaves did to provide the world’s top leading crop, cotton. Senator Hammond explains how the land to grow cotton is enough and no one ought to raise a war about it. The rhetorical strategies he uses within his speech are personification, syntax, and diction to make his statement equitable.
Within a few decades of each other both Martin Luther King and Chief Dan George speak to the public of racial injustice towards their own ethnicity. These two distinct activists both display hope in achieving racial and ethnic equality throughout their speeches. Martin Luther Kings’ speech can be seen as forward and direct in portraying his message, utilizing the rhetorical device of logos such as disturbing facts to persuade his audience. An example of this can be seen when he restates the promises of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, “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,
In 1895, Booker T. Washington mad an agreement known as the Atlanta Compromise. This was an agreement that stated that African Americans would be under white rule politically in order for them to recieve a more advanced education and due process in law. This meant that the African Americans needed to remain quiet in order for the whites to continue funding them. W.E.B Du Bois criticized Washington and did not agree with this compromise as he saw it as giving up to the white race. He believeed that Booker T. Washington was asking the African Americans to release their privillages. such as their political power. He stated that Washington was leading the Negros into opression. Du Bois claimed that if the African Americans had no politcal rights,
Even though humans raised the animals and provided shelter, Old Major wants to get the animals of the farm to rebel. His main purpose throughout the whole passage is to downgrade Jones and the farmhands. In his speech, he cryptically disses the humans by saying things like, “Remove Man from the scene, and the root of cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.” or, “Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings.” He uses pathos to appeal to the animal's emotional outlook on the subject and incite that Jones is the root of all their problems.
I believe that the “I Have a Dream” speech has more pathos and the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” has more logos. The speech is made to be more appealing to the emotions than appealing to logic. However, the speech still has logical explanations as well. The letter is the opposite. It has more logical appeal than emotional appeal because the letter is a response to fellow clergymen. (NEEDS WORK)
Booker T. Washington played major roles in proposing his ideas among the black community. In his autobiography, “Up From Slavery,” Washington begins to lay down the premise and foundations of his Atlanta Plan (Document 1 & 2). Washington describes the journey of obtaining this equality as one that requires a lot of difficulties and hard
Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech so riveting that any member of the press present neglected to record the speech, as they were so transfixed by his message. This is referred to as “Lincoln’s lost speech” because there are no known recordings of it. It is widely considered by historians to be a brutal condemnation of slavery. This speech is in direct contrast with his second inaugural address. In his lost speech, he shocked his listeners almost into submission by delivering such a powerful message about the evils of slavery; but in his inaugural address, he is all for reconciliation with the very organization which sponsored slavery in the first place. Lincoln’s diction and parallel structure indicate that he wanted the South to not feel offended,
President Washington ended his presidential terms as America’s first president with one of the most influentially written speeches in history. Although the speech was never actually presented by Washington, it was published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1796 nine years after the declaration of independence was signed. The speech was