Martin Luther King Jr's Ethos In I Have A Dream

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The Greatest Dream of All Civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Junior, in his motivational speech for equality, “I Have a Dream,” was delivered to an estimated group of 250,000 people and is now known as one of the most memorable speeches given. In his first statement he emphasizes, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” The purpose is to inspire and encourage hope and equality, in a nation of inequality. King’s tone is very powerful throughout and defines his desires with much authority, motivation, and emotion which all contribute to the style of his persuasive inspirational speech. Kings use of pathos is incredibly passionate as he strikes emotional value of both black and white people. His use of the bible causes an emotional response “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it…show more content…
He stated, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation," referring to Abraham Lincoln. He used this allusion to help call attention to the fact that Lincoln freed slaves in the South but the Negro still is not free, which he begins to highlight in the next paragraph (But one hundred years later....). He also stated, "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing 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, and the pursuit of happiness." This allusion to the very two documents America was constructed upon reminds the American people that equality was promised since Day One, yet that promise has not been efficiently carried
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    Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech is very well known and nearly everyone has heard of it. Before talking about his speech, let’s get a little background information on who Martin Luther King Jr. is. Martin Luther King Jr. is the second child of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King born in Atlanta, Georgia, who was a Baptist minister and social activist (History.com, Introduction). He played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until assassination

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