Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream

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Not free yet

In his most famous speech ‘I have a dream’, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed over 200,000 American citizens at the Lincoln Square in Washington D.C. With his speech he tried to inspire both Black and White citizens in The United States to solve the problem of racial segregation in a non-violent way. In the civil rights era Martin Luther King’s speeches, especially “I Have a Dream”, had a great influence on the civil rights movement that strived for equality and the ending of centuries of structural racism. In this critical response I will show that even though this civil rights movement may have come a long way, The United States is not yet a country which is completely free from racial inequality. For this reason I believe …show more content…

Despite the many problems and solutions King states in his speech there is no apparent claim made. He does, however, has three main points of support. Firstly King points to the fact that “America has defaulted on its promises” stated in the constitution. Secondly he states that the “black American is still not a free” citizens and lastly King eagers that “the time to make a change is right now” , however, it should be made in a non-violent way and should not result in a feeling of hatred towards white citizens. Moreover King’s ideas are very dark, yet sincere. In terms of stylistic devices King uses various anaphoras, a scheme allowing repetition in the beginning of successive lines, of which the most famous is “I Have a Dream”, This phrase is used eight times, which henceforth makes it the most memorable thing about this speech. Moreover there are a lot of allusions present in King’s speech of which most of them refer to the bible. Additional to the biblical references there is an …show more content…

In that time King’s attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement inspired many black Americans to follow his example and to start a non-violent protest against the structural racism that had stopped them from living a normal everyday life for as long as they could remember. His words were hopeful and deliberate. For this reason King has become the most famous Civil Rights activist in American history and is one of the people who helped to shape the world as we know