Similarities Between Martin Luther King And I Have A Dream Speech

In 1963, Martin Luther King J.R. wrote a letter in the margins of a newspaper from within the bars of his jail cell in Birmingham. This letter, known as “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, was written as a response to criticism received from eight clergymen regarding the protest that King was arrested for. In that same year, King gave a powerful speech to a large crowd gathered in Washington D.C., at the Lincoln Memorial. This speech, easily recognized as the “I Have a Dream” speech, addressed the cruelty of segregation and unfair ways of which most people were treated, and influenced hope within his audience. In these two writings, examples of both logos and pathos can be found, and although the writings are comparable, they are not completely

Logos includes facts, common sense, and logistics in order to bring across a point rationally. For example, in King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he states, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham.” (King 272) In this statement, King refers to what had occurred in the Birmingham march, and disproves the clergymen’s words by reasoning that they had not done anything wrong, and they were following the rules of nonviolence. In King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he announces, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the emancipation Proclamation.” (King 261) By reminding the audience of this event and when it occurred, by reasoning, King is showing to the audience the unfair treatment of most people by revealing the event that would have granted equal rights to all and how long it has taken, without even being acted upon. Both writings show examples of logos, and they both influence a sense of