Martin Luther King Jr is known across the nation as a civil rights advocate during the mid-20th Century. During this time, racism was a huge issue in the United States. African-Americans were discriminated, segregated. and seen as inferior to the white American society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s, “I Have a Dream” speech became one of the greatest weapons that he used to bring freedom and justice to the African-American individual. King uses past historical events, current documents and personal experiences, as well as emotional phrases to describe why African-American segregation and injustice needs to come to an end.
Dr. King expresses his beliefs as he quotes a similar phrase to Abraham Lincoln’s: “Five score years ago,” at the beginning …show more content…
The repetition of this phrase resembles a wish or a yearn that King hopes one day becomes true. He begins by mentioning how he believes one day the nation will come together as a whole in unity and equality. As he mentioned the children during his first repetitive phrase, he does the same thing during the second: “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” (Welling 1994). Mentioning his children evokes an emotional sense to the audience. Much like the first repetitive phrase he uses, he reminds the audience that the Negro children are also persecuted and segregated. Doing this allows King to cast a shadow of guilt to the white American society that denies the African-American the “oasis of freedom and justice” (Welling 1994). The following two sentences also describes his continuing dream about the Negro children. George Wallace, governor of Alabama during King’s speech, claimed both races wanted segregation, causing the segregation of schools (Wallace 2009). Therefore, King directs himself to the state of Alabama as a place with “vicious racists” that he dreams one day will allow the “joining of hands with little black boys and black girls” with “little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (Welling
Dr. King expresses his beliefs as he quotes a similar phrase to Abraham Lincoln’s: “Five score years ago,” at the beginning …show more content…
The repetition of this phrase resembles a wish or a yearn that King hopes one day becomes true. He begins by mentioning how he believes one day the nation will come together as a whole in unity and equality. As he mentioned the children during his first repetitive phrase, he does the same thing during the second: “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” (Welling 1994). Mentioning his children evokes an emotional sense to the audience. Much like the first repetitive phrase he uses, he reminds the audience that the Negro children are also persecuted and segregated. Doing this allows King to cast a shadow of guilt to the white American society that denies the African-American the “oasis of freedom and justice” (Welling 1994). The following two sentences also describes his continuing dream about the Negro children. George Wallace, governor of Alabama during King’s speech, claimed both races wanted segregation, causing the segregation of schools (Wallace 2009). Therefore, King directs himself to the state of Alabama as a place with “vicious racists” that he dreams one day will allow the “joining of hands with little black boys and black girls” with “little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” (Welling