Martin Luther King: from the March on Washington to Riverside Church. Two Speeches in Context (original) (raw)
Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 2018
During the last year of King's life, his ability to persuade and to gain a national consensus around issues of war, poverty, economic injustice, and the inequality suffered by blacks and all people of color had waned. Faced with increasing hostility to him and the movement along with the rising white backlash, King knew that moral suasion would not give him the results that he had hoped. This lead King, to launch the Poor People's Campaign as a movement of massive civil disobedience that would lead to economic boycotts and the shutdown entire cities. By doing this, King hoped that the government, sensitive to the dislocation and shutdowns would eventually do the "right thing." I conclude by arguing that BLM whether knowingly or not, have adopted many of the ideas that King argued during the last year of his life becoming the natural extension of King's vision in the last year of his life.
2024
This study examines the transformative effects of Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech on societal changes. The analysis delves into how the speech catalyzed the civil rights movement by scrutinizing its key rhetorical strategies and King's adept use of ethos, pathos, and logos to engage and persuade his audience. Delivered during the 1963 March on Washington, the speech stands as a significant moment in American history, encapsulating King's vision of racial equality and justice in the United States. Employing a critical discourse analysis, this study explores the speech's immediate impact on listeners, its role in spurring action, and its enduring influence on modern social justice movements both in the USA and globally. The results highlight the powerful role language plays in societal change and affirm the continuing relevance of King's messages of hope and equality.
A DREAM COME TRUE? REFLECTION ON DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Every third Monday of January of every year all across America (and the world), we remember the birth, life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the impact and/or relevance of his vision, values and legacy on race relations in the United States. Although Martin Luther King Jr. was not the first black American to advocate vigorously for civil rights for African-Americans, his efforts were quite unique and compelling. Through his dream and involvement in the civil rights movement, Dr. King, Jr. gave hope and full meaning to the idea of equality, freedom, and justice. However, civil rights movements in America did not begin with Dr. King, Jr.; it dates back to the signing of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. The declaration contains a short but very powerful sentence, which states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." Ever since, this sentence has remained the basis for future struggles for the protection of civil rights and civil liberties, and subsequent laws that would prohibit many forms of racial and gender discrimination in the United States.
Martin Luther King's" I Have a Dream
Journal of Black Studies, 1988
This article studies Martin Luther King's speech, "I Have a Dream," delivered on August 28, 1963, at the Washington Mall, as a sermon in the black Baptist tradition. Considering "performance as situated in context... as unfolding or arising within that context" (Hymes, 1981: 81), this ...
Revisiting Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign and Unfinished Agenda
2018
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Freedom..." "When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run, There can be no power anywhere beneath the sun, for what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one But in union we are strong..."