On 28th August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. held a speech that was attended by over 250,000 civil rights fans. His speech which lasted for 18 minutes was given at the moment when blacks were cruelly discriminated against. The speech “I Have a Dream” is always regarded as being among the greatest and famous speeches in history. This speech was a defining period of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Martin Luther King’s background as a first rank leader of the Negro and a member of the civil rights greatly helped him in this speech. He was American blacks’ symbolic leader and a world-image American Rhetoric (2005).
The purpose of the king’s speech was to motivate the endorsement of change within the Americans, and the state, in relation to Americans’ inappropriate views towards unlike races or tribal groups in America. King stresses on the American blacks being victimized, Talking about his fellow blacks from both expert and personal levels. King’s objective was to put important pressure on the state and its citizen, by identifying the mistakes of their habits and the promises which have never happened through history. He asks for change and gives out solutions, by so doing he intended to influence the state to unite, thereby ending the historical division among the American citizen. The important information in king’s speech is that everyone is equally created although that was not the case in America at the moment, he had a strong feeling that this will change in the future.
There is no doubt that the king’s speech was perfectly researched. In his homework, he seriously read the Bible, The Gettysburg Address, and the declaration of United States of America independence and he indirectly refers to all these in his talk. The style of the speech has been explained as a political treatise, poetry work and improvised and a masterfully delivered talk, coming up with language and imagery from the bible plus rhythm and recurrences.
The bigger part of the king’s achievement as an orator was because of his utilization of rhetoric in his communication. He was able to determine the mood and tone of the listeners, and intermingle with them properly. The utilization of metaphors gave him a chance to outline his point to convey an excellent speech. In most cases, he was calm and composed, when needed he was capable to be loud and integrate anyone’s movement. He stopped for applauses often, this permitted the listeners to display their enthusiasm and create them feel included instead of them having a feeling that they are just sitting listening to somebody speech American Rhetoric (2005).
King directed his encouragement to white and blank individuals joining hands to attain racial peace and agreement. He specifically wanted to educate the blanks that sameness could be achieved through the application of non-violence. He also encourages blanks to never forget their dreams and urged that in God’s eyes, blacks should be equally treated because they are important as any race in America. The speech was effective in that it inspired the majority of black and white addressees who attended in Washington and those who were viewing on T.V. The best aspect of this speech is that everybody was equally created. King passionately needed it to be the future case. Apart from this main idea, subsequent thoughts are involved to back up and stress it.
References
American Rhetoric (2005). Top ten Speeches: I have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. delivered 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.