I Have A Dream Speech Argument

The most compelling speech of the four was the “I Have A Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1950s and 60s, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. A centuries-old prejudice, unchallenged under majority white rule, was now at odds with a seething black populace that hungered for the rights bestowed upon them by the Founding Fathers. Despite progress in the North, the discriminatory Jim Crow laws, which were pervasive in the American South at the time, prevented blacks from scaling the hierarchy and left them as second-class citizens, unable to vote and enter white establishments (among other things). Efforts were made to quell these unfair laws, including sit-ins in whites-only restaurants and “Freedom Rides,” in which black …show more content…
The only rhetorical scenario of all of the speeches to provide a silver lining and a comforting sendoff, this part of the speech addresses the personal turmoil and violent urges of the justifiably wounded and possibly hopeless sections of King’s audience, weakened by the violence and hatred directed towards them. At this point in time, mob violence instigated by whites during African-American protests had become commonplace, with incidents such as the Freedom Ride riots in Montgomery severely injuring and sometimes even killing some activists. The black community is reeling from this turn of events, and King knows that if the issue is not addressed, it is entirely possible that a significant portion of African-Americans are at risk of giving up entirely. As we’ve heard multiple times (albeit in the psychological/emotional sense), the first step to overcome an issue is to acknowledge the latter, and this is what King does, saying, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials,” and that “You have been veterans of creative