In August of 1963, the civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr., made his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech. King confronts the absence of free will that African Americans had in civilization. He assertively argues and emotionally states to his audience with the use of sympathy, repetition, and logic that African Americans went through a large amount of discrimination and how it is time for injustice to end. These rhetorical strategies allow the audience to sufficiently connect with Martin’s message.
Martin Luther King Jr. appeals to the sympathy of his listeners through his abrupt and bold tone with the way a slave owner treated African Americans. King uses his bold abrupt tone as he says “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,” (1). For example, King compares African Americans as living on a “lonely island of poverty” as everyone else is
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King begins with the phrase “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation,” (1). He uses the expression “Five score years ago,” to refer to the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln signed to declare the freedom of African American slaves. This helps King's argument by stating that despite the proclamation, African Americans were still not free; they faced the utmost segregation, and discrimination. On page 1, King states “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” King implies, disputing the proclamation, African Americans were still not free; they faced discrimination and segregation. He used the credibility of Lincoln because he was a president who fought for African American equality. King gains trust from his viewers and creates the appeal of logic by quoting Lincoln's Emancipation