Martin Luther King Jfk Speech Analysis

Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was a very persuasive and effective speech. The speech was delivered on April 4th, 1968 in Indianapolis Indiana. The speech was given on the same evening that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Also, the speech was delivered during the 1968 presidential election; Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was on the campaign trail initially making a routine campaign stop (NPR, “Robert Kennedy: Delivering News of King’s Death). Despite being warned not to make the speech by the city’s police, Kennedy went on to make the speech, without police escort, on a flatbed truck. The crowd, largely black, were unaware of the assassination of Dr. King.

Deliberative rhetoric concerns the future. As a tool of persuasion, deliberative rhetoric persuades an audience to either make a choice against or for something. In the beginning of Kennedy’s remarks, he states, “In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in (para. 2)”. He then outlines options for the audience. He argues that the nation could either “... move in that direction...in greater polarization … Or, as a nation ...we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across out land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love (para. 3).” He clearly defines and argues which option is better for the nation, when he explicitly states, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another (para. 7).” In this fashion, Kennedy’s rhetoric is deliberative; he is focused on the future of the nation and demonstrating which path would better benefit the