Martin Luther King Essay

I have a dream was one of the most powerful and influential speeches of all time, it not only created the realisation that the Negro was not free, it persuaded that of white people to make a change for the benefit of the African Americans. The African American civil rights movement was creeping forward but two individuals created a greater atmosphere for the reinforcement of the movement, sure William Wilberforce abolished the slave trade for Britain in 1807, and that was just the start, but 203 years later the African Americans are now equal. It took time but nonetheless it happened. In essence the African American civil rights movement was Martin Luther king’s dream, and that dream has come true. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia; He was the middle child from a family of five. Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. An intelligent student, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. The bus boycott of 1955 was the first step in king’s revolutionary ideas. The boycott lasted 382 days. After which the Supreme Court of the United States had declared the laws requiring segregation on buses as illegal, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, but after he was released, he emerged as the Negro leader. King came from a world where he was part of an inferior race, it was this very world that needed to change and martin Luther King Jr was the one to start the changes that would soon shape the world. The bus boycott was just the beginning of his incredible contribution. Martin Luther King Jr then went on to be one of the most influential people among those who changed the world for the better; he died fighting the cause of justice that is now known as the African American civil rights movement. King wanted a better world where his children were not subjects to racial oppression and judged not by their skin colour but by their character and personality, where the coloured man was equal to the white man, Martin Luther king Jr was so inspired and passionate about change to come about, and he started the bus boycott, taking a stand for what was righteous. The fact that Martin Luther was an African American himself was just as much motivation for his actions and dedication to the African American civil rights movement. Martin Luther king Jr understood the pain caused by racial discrimination and through understanding this pain first hand, made him realise that he wanted to make a change and through doing so, started the bus boycott in 1955. Martin Luther king was so inspired to eventually give his most well known speech which is â€Å"I have a dream†, this speech changed the African American revolution and spoke to every person in the world, whether you were a man of colour or not, it still had meaning, he said that we should treat all people equally and not judge someone by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. He was inspired and became an influential person for many. John Kennedy came from a rich and privileged Irish-American family. Even so, the family had to leave Boston, and move to New York. In Boston, the family had been held at arm’s length by those rich families who saw their Irish background as vulgar and the family’s wealth as lacking ‘class’. The Kennedy’s hoped that the more cosmopolitan New York would allow them to access high society. This introduction to bigotry and discrimination should have given Kennedy some kind of empathetic understanding of what life was like for African Americans. However, the opposite would appear to be true. However, during the presidential campaign and after he was nominated for the Democrats, Kennedy made it clear in his speeches that he was a supporter of civil rights. Some saw the opposition to the 1957 Act as understandable from a political point of view. Others have adopted a more cynical view which is that Kennedy recognised that he needed the ‘Black Vote’ if he was to beat Nixon. Hence why he said in his campaign speeches that discrimination stained America. Kennedy did not exploit the African American civil rights movement as a scheme to gain more votes, Kennedy wanted the African Americans to be equal, so he took their side, He wanted a better world where blacks and whites were equal, through martin Luther king Jr’s dream, Kennedy also had a vision of this dream where everyone was equal. A world where everyone is not equal is hardly a world at all, and john F Kennedy was a supporter of the new world, he was inspired both through getting the black vote and making a change for the better, with a vision of the new world. Kennedy helped shape the world to what it is today with equality and harmony through all individuals no matter what the race or colour or religion. Within the three speeches in which I have chosen to analyse, there are three main techniques that all three speakers use. These techniques help to make the speeches more effective and have a deeper impact. Repetition is a key point throughout all these speeches, in martin Luther king’s speech he keeps repeating about the dream he has â€Å"I have a dream that one day†¦ †, The dream is a frame for the future and sets the stage for the rest of the words. ‘Dream’ is vague aspiration. ‘One day’ starts to make it specific. This creates an ambience throughout the audience when he begins to share his dream, those words â€Å"I have a dream† is constantly repeated so that the audience remembers his dream, and even today it is a prominent speech. In JFK’s speech he repeats the phrase â€Å"It ought to be possible† he gives examples of what should be possible. â€Å"It ought to be possible for American consumers of any colour to receive equal service in places of public accommodation. †; â€Å"It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his colour† this helps the listeners and viewers to get an idea of the dream that both JFK and martin Luther king Jr share. He highlights the importance of what is ‘ought’ to be like to be an American. Furthermore all speakers use emotive language, in martin Luther king Jr’s speech emotive language is everywhere, â€Å"One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. † We immediately feel sympathetic to the Negro’s because of the oppression that they face in everyday life, martin Luther king uses emotive language in several occasions within his speech both for effect and to get people to realise how harsh negro’s are treated in society. We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes† JFK says this with passion as he repeats martin Luther king’s dream and message, the negro is still not free regardless of this contradi ction with the American voice of freedom. They speak of freedom and peace throughout the world yet, the Negro is still not free, Despite contradictory ideas within the American public, they are forced to feel sympathy for the negro because of these words being spoken. Finally the use of personal pronouns within all three speeches. Martin Luther king specifies the Negro as his personal pronoun, the use of the word in his speech is not to offend but to educate that the African American is still not free; he addresses the Negro people in the crowd and the world. â€Å"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† But not only does he address these people, the speech is aimed at white people because they are the oppressors, yet martin Luther king decides to address the Negro as his collective, everyone who attended that speech was addressed, martin Luther king used personal pronouns to persuade and win over his audience and he changed and aided the African American revolution for the better. In JFK’s civil rights message he uses personal pronouns to win over and side with the audience members. Negro† and â€Å"American† are the two personal pronouns used the most throughout this speech. These are used so that everyone is included within this speech, and hence everyone can be persuaded that a change is needed because they feel as if JFK is talking to them, the use of personal pronoun within all three speeches is used to persuade and win over the people receiving the speeches. â€Å"I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. † This is speaking out to all Americans in a way through the use of a personal pronoun.