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Running head: MARTIN LUTHER KING SPEECH 0
Martin Luther King Speech Analysis
Hanan Alkhamis
Mississippi College
Abstract
This research implies a critical study of the world's most famous speech. It is the speech of Martin Luther King. This research is based on the positive effects that appeared after those generally peaceful protests that followed the speech titled "I Have a Dream" in particular. This research renders a simple overview of the life of Martin Luther King, such as his birth and upbringing and how he was able to lead those peaceful protests. This research also demonstrates the reasons why Martin Luther King delivered this speech. Also, one of the most important points that have been addressed in this research is the clarification of how Martin Luther King could influence millions of people, not just in one year, but also for tens of years up to date. As well, it involves widely an analytical study of the speech itself in terms of its invention, strength, delivery style, techniques, organization and eloquence.
Introduction
Cold room at the National Museum, with white walls having paintings on it, those paintings are small, but have great significance.
In front of the threshold of the room, anyone standing feels the reverence of history. One step would take you to those years lived by Dr. Martin Luther King, which manifested itself in the gallery.
Americans celebrate Monday equivalent to the birthday of Martin Luther. It is official holiday in the United States, on the third Monday of January every year.
In the gallery "One Life," the silence of the photos, mostly in black and white, would let you hear the noise of the feet of hundreds of thousands of people inspired by this American struggler, driving them to travel from Montgomery City in Alabama to Memphis City in Tennessee, passing Washington over the 13 years of his struggle life while chanting "We will win, we will take our rights", until they broke the collar of racial discrimination and returned to the minorities rights denied for a long time.
The turning point in the struggle of King came in December 1955 when Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her place in a bus to a white passenger, and then as was usual the driver called the police to arrest her.
After this incident, King called to boycott the bus company. The boycott extended it for a whole year, which has greatly impacted the company's revenues, and led to the break down of racial segregation law in Alabama. Hence, the process of the struggle for the dissemination of justice and peace began.
Martin Luther King Junior who inspired the successful peaceful protests was the reason for the rejection of racism and justice among people today, although he lost his life for it.
Biography of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a significant role in the American civil rights movement from the mid- 1950s until his assassination in 1968. Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. As we all know that the most important peaceful protest was the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of1965. Martin Luther king was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remember each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986. King’s accomplishments are now taught to American children of all races, and scholars and students around the world study his teachings. Martin Luther King is the only non-president to have a national holiday dedicated in his honor, and is only non-president memorialized on the Great Mall in nation’s capitol. King is memorialized in hundreds of statues, streets, parks and other public facilities around the world because he was a great leader who published freedom and justice firstly in America and secondly in the rest of the world’s countries. Later, in 2014 "Selma" film was launched, which tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people.
Description of Martin Luther King 's Speech
Martin Luther King dreamed of the spread of justice among the people, whatever their races or ethnicities, all over the world in general and America in particular. He knew that freedom and work is a need and right for every human being to live in dignity. From this standpoint, he marched in a rally of hundreds of thousands to Washington, DC, in 1963 to tell the world that his dream "deep-rooted in the American dream" of a decent living. He did not satisfy himself to be under the "segregation restrictions" did not shackle his will to "discrimination chains."
In that historic moment on August 28, 1963 under the statue of Lincoln Memorial in the center of Washington, DC, King was the last speaker in what became known later as the biggest protest in the history of civil rights.
King's speech, which was written, described the state of American demonstrators who came to the capital of their country from all over the United States "to demand a debt owed to them and not fulfilled by America." He said, "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Black people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
In the context of that speech, the chanter of religious hymns well-known at that time Mahalia Jackson screamed, "Martin tell them about the dream, Martin told them about the dream." The priest who was used to Sunday Mass Sermons put aside his papers and. Then he held the tip of the podium, breathing deeply and said, " Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
Martin Luther King Speech Analysis
At the first, Martin Luther King speech was directed to two kinds of people, the black people who were suffering from oppression, deprivation and racism, and the whites who were supporting that black people have been deprived of their right of unlawfully.
Martin Luther King started his speech by providing a strong ethos appeal and establishing credibility with his audience, he said: ”Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” so, these words brought authority into King’s speech, because Lincoln was a powerful and great president who empowered the American people throughout the civil war.
In the first part of the speech. Martin Luther King began to draw an accurate picture of the plight of blacks who were suffering from various types of torture and racism. Moreover, the speech of Martin Luther King implied a reproach coming out of his heart to touch the hearts of whites to feel more their guilty deeds toward the blacks who are not guilty because they are black, adding that despite that their color is not their fault, they have been deprived of their rights provided in the Constitution.
Also, it is clear how he focused on the emotional side in his description and his words so as to make his message an arrow piercing the hearts of the whites and make them feel ashamed of themselves. Martin Luther King in his speech, in order to back up his basic structure King used rhetorical modes, one of which is pathos, or the mode of utilizing human emotions, by making his audience no longer hate blacks and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world, which is part of the structure of his speech. King tries his pest in the speech to make the audience sympathize with the blacks, dislike racism and then be filled with hope of a new world without racism by using strong adjectives and metaphors. Also in this part King use the logos appeal when he said: ” Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." He used the money here because he believed that everyone knows the value of money and then the listener would be able to understand the sense of handed a bad check.
In the second part. We find how King used one of the most persuasion techniques to persuade audience by using the repetition style to renew hope. This rhetorical style is great, because the logic confirms that after hardship comes the relief, after sorrow comes the joy. This is clear in King's speech. He was repeating the words of "Now is the time." By this style, he confirmed that the relief is close even if dark stayed long. This phrase in fact reassures any person who suffering from difficulties.
In the third part. After he described the tragedy experienced by the blacks, he followed it with the hope that relieved the hearts, and then confirmed that there is no hope without action. In this section we see clear how he repeated "We must" urging them to struggle, be patient and seek their rights, but without assaulting others, as self-restraint is a must. Hence, he also focused on the importance of unity and brotherhood.
In the fourth part. He re-described the situation experienced by the blacks, as if he wanted to keep it stuck in the heart and mind of each unjust. At the same time, he was confirming to every black, "You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."
In the fifth part. Martin Luther King was creative because he did not use body language only, but also used the power of voice and improvisation and ingenuity. He lifted his head from the paper and improvised saying, "I have a dream." He said this phrase and his voice have rang out to this day. That phrase shook every unjust person and changed the course of history. With the strength of that phrase changed the situation and turned the scales. With those words, America has become the home of freedom. Without the phrase "I have a dream," Mandela was not to be illustrious president of South Africa, nor Kofi Annan was to be selected as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, nor was the miracle of electing a son of a Kenyan Muslim father to be the president of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, to be a reality, the dream has become true.
At the conclusion of his speech. He repeated the words of "Let freedom ring!" in these words he explained how we could solve the problem, so the first thing we need to do is, we must start by proving every citizen's right to freedom, and after the freedom, the justice will kick off.
Conclusion
In Martin Luther King speech we find smoothness of phrases, easiness of delivery and ingenuity of selecting words. We also find the logical order of the speech, starting by describing the miserable situation in which the blacks lived. Then, he propagated hope in souls, and focused on working, since without work there is no hope. Later, he reused the description of injustice conditions, to confirm the magnitude of the crime and injustice. Then, concluded to clarify the first solution, represented in realizing freedom. His delivery technique was not only persuasive, but also impacted thousands of generations of all races. He used body language with the power of words to touch all hearts. Finally Martin Luther King changed the history and he sacrificed his life for others to live a decent life.
References
Edwards, Stevie. “ Analysis of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech”
"Martin Luther King Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle: Gandhi Society for Human
Rights". Stanford University.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Biography. Biography.com. Web. 9 August. 2012
Martin Luther King — Final Advice". The Progress Report. January 9, 2007. Retrieved
February 4, 2015.
Martin Luther King Day". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on March 28, 2008. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
Presentationmagazine.com. Presentation Magazine. n. d. Web. 12 August 2012.
The King Center's Mission". The King Center. Archived from the original on April 12,
2008. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
Appendix
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.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. 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.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"
We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our chlidren are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only."
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
