martin luther king

August 28 1963

Martin Luther King

The speech “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King is one of the memorable speeches of all time. The speech was delivered in August 28 1963 in during the Civil Rights Movement and the March on Washington for freedom and he calls for an end to racism in the United States. The speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the speech Martin Luther King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. He evokes a strong, active, commanding voice, using such verbs as must, cannot, can never, etc. Many scholars call this speech a “rhetorical masterpiece” because of King’s allusions to various important texts, including Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Emancipation Declaration, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution. We can all learn speechwriting skills from Martin Luther King’s historic masterpiece “I have a dream”.

Anaphora is a commonly used rhetorical device. Anaphora means repeating words at the beginning of neighboring clauses. Repeating the words twice sets the pattern. In the speech, Martin Luther King urges his audience to seize the moment; “Now is the time” is repeated three times in the sixth paragraph in the speech. Other occasions include "One hundred years later", "We can never be satisfied", "With this faith", "Let freedom ring", and "free at last". “I have a dream” is repeated in eight sentences and it is the most widely cited example of Anaphora as King paints a picture of an integrated and unified America for his audience. The most commonly used noun in the speech is the word “freedom” which is used twenty times in the speech. King employs the technique from the beginning, and carries it throughout his speech. “One hundred years later…” “Now is the time,” “we can never be satisfied…” and of course, the now-immortal phrase: “I have a dream…” This speech in particular shows the inherent power in using repetition.

In this historic speech, Martin Luther King said he had a dream that white and black children would one day walk hand in hand and that one-day son of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners would be able to agree to live together. In the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, were tremendously difficult times for African-Americans. They were not treated like white Americans simply because of their skin color, and the law protected the bad treatment they got. Laws requiring separate hotels, restraunts, schools, and even drinking fountains were common in many states. When Martin Luther King begins with the phrase “I have a dream…” he is painting a picture for his audience, he is visualizing what life would be like for African Americans if the Civil Rights movement were won. Rather than just muse abstractly about ideas like hope and faith, King gives his audience a concrete idea of what that hope and that faith can accomplish. This is what life could look like, he says, after we’ve fought our fight, after we’ve turned our hope and faith into something real. By referencing the most important rights-granting documents in American history, he’s placing his fight, this fight for Civil Rights, into a vastly important historical context.

The speech was important in several ways, it brought greater attention to the Civil Rights Movement, which had been going on for many years. The speech was given in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial, the monument honoring President Abraham Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the Southern States. Also the speech was carried on radio and was reprinted in newspapers and magazines all over the United States and all over the world. It brought Martin Luther King and his message of non-violence to a nationwide and worldwide audience. It made Congress move faster in passing the Civil Rights Act. This set of laws was finally passed the next year, in 1964. Many of these laws gave African-Americans more equal treatment than they had before.

Martin Luther King continued to speak out for civil rights and for nonviolence, but sadly he was killed in 1968. But the memory of his famous speech “I Have a Dream” and the message it contained remains one of the most famous speeches in American history.

Sadeel Enani 10A

Word Count: 714

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