Rhetorical Devices Used In I Have A Dream Speech

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During the early 1900’s, racism and discrimination were both a daily struggle for African Americans throughout America. Being raised during that time period, the civil right’s advocate was not ignorant to inequality and hate crimes. However, after realizing and understanding that the colored Americans were being violated of the civil rights promised to them in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, he no longer wanted to sit around and wait for a change to be made. Martin Luther King Jr's “I Have a Dream” speech, given on August 10, 1970, was a peaceful demand for racial justice and an integrated society. King’s mastery of rhetoric devices used in his speech, his aspiration for his American dream, and his experience as a civil rights leader were all …show more content…
King is renowned for his work as a civil rights leader, and it all began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 (McGill, 2005). Dr. King helped organized a boycott and he even got hundreds of citizens to participate (McGill, 2005). In his speech, he states, "There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities". Dr. King and other civil rights leaders'' will not stop until there is equality in America. The words he spoke in this portion of his speech were not only from his point of view as a civil rights leader, but from all of the devoted civil rights leaders views. Dr. King went on to describe the things in America that were inequitable, and he encouraged African Americans to not give up. He had faith that the difficulties could be overcome, and he shared his faith with the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. undoubtedly gave a brilliant speech that ultimately transformed America. Although Dr. King was assassinated before he could see the change he helped to make, his dream did not die with him. It was not a painless journey, but America today is just what Dr.King envisioned. Americans of all races attend the same schools, eat at the same restaurants, drink from the
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