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Rhetorical Analysis Of George Wallace's Speech

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When the Civil Rights Movement circulated into southern United States in the 1960s, many white southerners felt threatened by the social change of dismantling Jim Crow—state and local laws imposing racial segregation. The 1960s Birmingham, Alabama was one of America’s most racially discriminatory and segregated cities in the nation, in which the slight notion of racial integration of any form was met with violent resistance. In the midst of racial havoc, a unanimous decision was made to brand Birmingham as the focal point to aid the civil rights movement because the city was fueled on hatred and impulsive public officials including George Wallace (Alabama Governor), Eugene Connors (Director of Public Safety), and deputy sheriff (James Hancock). …show more content…

In a single but powerful phrase he states, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”1 The words in his speech and its delivery are synchronized to convey hatred, throughout the speech, Wallace is shown shaking his fist to round up rallying cries of support. While a governor is supposed to oversee the common welfare of its people, Wallace’s demeaning message expresses that African Americans are less worthy of respect, which unfortunately reflects the opinions of many white southerners during this time. Many white southerners viewed African Americans demands for racial equality as a threat to their social, economic, and political order. It consequently led to white southerners to view George Wallace as an answer to end their fears. In an audio diary, James Poe Jr., a former student civil right activist recalls that violence immediately followed Wallace’s speech. Poe states, “We began to feel the sting of the speech. People night-riding and burning crosses. The police beat down people and ran over them with horses, put tear gas on them."2 At the time of his election, Alabama Governor George Wallace was a leading antagonist of desegregation, which was used as a tool to gain political

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Dan T. Carter’s book The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics chronicles the rise and fall of George Wallace, a populist who abandoned his ideals to become a national symbol of racism. In chapter eleven, the book takes a look at the “southernization” of American politics, with a special focus on the 1968 presidential election. This chapter discusses how Richard Nixon used his “Southern Strategy”, George Wallace’s “Wallace Factor”, and how Wallace’s political style helped the Republican Party rise in the South. Richard Nixon saw the fractures in the Solid South that were caused by Civil Rights legislation as a way to draw in Democrats living in southern states that

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Freedom is not free. Throughout America, we are stronger working citizens all over the world. People work for the government, local rescues, Congress, education, local rescues, and people even work our safety and protection for our nation. On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush made an astonishing speech about the evil that happened that day. Terrorists attacked the nation, and they killed thousands of people.

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Wallace's speech offers an eye opening truth on the self-centered human nature. Taking an exaggerated, truthful approach, the speech emphasizes the "rat race" or "default-setting" of human nature ad unconscious and that real freedom involves the awareness, discipline and effort put forth to consider other people. David Foster Wallace provides a humorous and genuine story of a wise, old fish and two young, careless fish to emphasize the constant default setting of being the center of the universe that people usually follow. Also, Wallace reflects on his own experience, suggesting to stay away from the default. Then he notes the other possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable to assert that you can choose what to worship, while considering

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In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. is responding to criticism of the peaceful protests and sit-in’s that were taking place in Birmingham, which led to his being arrested and the reason that he was in jail. He first responds to the accusation of being an “outsider” by setting the stage for his being in Birmingham due to being invited because of his ties to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights organization and due to the fact that he is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Next, Martin Luther King expands on his moral beliefs that there is “injustice” in the way that Birmingham is “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States”.

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The city’s police leader, Eugene “Bull” Connor, was also notorious for his willingness to use brutality in combating radical demonstrators, union members, and blacks. The night of the bombing there man angry black protestors. Governor Wallace sent out hundreds of policeman and state troopers to break up the large angry crowd. 2 others were killed that night one by police and the other by racist white thugs. Upon learning of the bombing at the Church, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to Alabama Governor George Wallace, a staunch and vocal segregationist, stating bluntly: 'The blood of our little children is on your hands."

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