Power Of Words During The Civil Rights Movement

Words have the power to be powerful! Did you know that one of the most powerful weapons is words? Words are strong and they can change everything, especially during the Civil Rights Movement, which was the main thing that kept people going. Many leaders and writers like Rosa Parks, Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, and Jeanne Theoharis use words to their advantage and make their readers feel something and they draw out sympathy, compassion, and exasperate the audience to make them want to make change. The texts talk about racism and how to rise up and fight back when it comes to segregation and racism. These texts also provoke and calm the while inspiring people, to bring forth change. The power of words is prevalent in many circumstances,

In Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, he provokes the audience and readers. He empowers everyone to help and take action. He states, “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself exiled in his own land"(6). This supports the claim that King provoked people in his “I Have A Dream” speech. He is provoking people by using ethos, showing how morally wrong that people still exile or treat black people as if they do not belong, though they have been languished for years and still are. This is supposed to bring anger and preternaturals, and he wants the people to fight against it and to push for change. Also in King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he reaches out to the people and he provokes people by arguing that "We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality"(10). This allows people to be aroused

Words have the power to inspire, King and many other figures during this time use words to inspire people. Inspiration is what drives and leads people to do many things, by seeing other people doing things people want to take action and to be provoked you have to have inspiration. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “I have a Dream” speech states "And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true" (22). This inspires people who have a doubt and inspires people to try to make America a great nation. This supports the claim that words inspire because these words that he has stated will help somebody to be inspired and empowered to try to make an effort or impact small, or little, to help make America a great nation because it is not already. This pushes people, especially when he says “must” he needs this to come true one way or another if he is dead or alive and wants to inspire people to follow his “dream” as well. In the Letter From Birmingham Jail, King says that, "For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" almost always means "never." It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration” (4). This quote inspires by showing how patient Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is and how long he has been, and inspires people to be more like him and become patient. He says things like this so