Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

780 Words4 Pages
On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people, both blacks and whites, gathered around the Lincoln memorial to listen to one of the most famous speeches given in history.(Polk and Stewart, 2013) This speech is known as “I Have a Dream” delivered by Martin Luther King after his march on Washington. In this speech he tackled issues regarding the inequality between blacks and whites and the imbalance of justice in basic human rights. He also masterfully used Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in his speech to address the social injustices of segregation and discrimination of African-Americans that was taking place in our nation at that time. Martin Luther King was well known in the community for being an American Baptist minister, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights movement. His credibility was also built when MLK proved himself as a well educated African American man by using historical evidences in his speeches. On August 28, 1963 he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and analogized Lincoln in his speech. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”(King, 1963) By mentioning Lincoln,…show more content…
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. (King, 1963) In that section of the speech, King pointed out that everyone must join together because the impact that they could make as one would be far greater than any attempt made alone. He encouraged them to remember that whatever circumstances they found themselves in, to keep marching forward and to not give up hope. He informed the audience that violence was not the answer. He reminded them that violence could only make things worse and that the solution would be more impactful if they led a peaceful protest against the government,
Open Document