Ethos, Logos In Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream

Imagine yourself walking down the busy and crowded streets of downtown Ann Arbor. As you are walking down Main Street, you see a sign that says, “Whites Only” above one of the stores. Another sign above a restaurant door reads the words, “No Colored Allowed”. These are some of the things that exemplified unequal rights in America during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. In the year of 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech to hundred of thousands spectators during these difficult times for dark colored skin individuals in America. Many people would consider Mr. King’s “I Have A Dream”, speech as one of the greatest one to this day. It included a perfect combination of Ethos, logos and Pathos that directly …show more content…
Through out the speech, he included several instances of a combination of stories and facts. One of the instances when he incorporated information was in the beginning of his speech he informed the audience that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed to free the black slaves, but here they stand one hundred year later still facing unequal rights. Martin also informs us of a quote directly from the United States Constitution that states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Both of these informative parts of his speech help support his ambition of his speech. His main purpose of the speech was to inspire to act on a change. The change he envisioned was that all individuals were to have equal right no matter what the color of their skin was, and he inspired the audience not be satisfied until this dream was ultimately …show more content…
is one of the greatest speakers to present in front of a large-scale audience. The audience had over 250,000, which was the largest demonstration ever seen in front of the nations capitol. It was also one of the first speeches to have extensive television coverage (Ross). The speech was also presented during the civil rights movement, a time period filled with built up anxiety in the community to make a change. The pressure to present this type of speech must have been extremely high. One of Martin strong points for his presentation was his preparation for the speech because he showed no signs of his nervousness and spoke very clearly. He purposefully planned to speak in on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to give a symbolic message to his audience. His speech began with lines from the Gettysburg Address that Abraham Lincoln addressed to free the black slaves in the 1800’s. Martin also established a strong connection with the audience as the speech progressed. As the audience became more responsive to the things he said, he followed with an even louder tone and the audiences got louder along with