Rhetorical Analysis Of John Kennedy's Speech

1079 Words5 Pages

Injustice and Racism against Fellow Americans (African Americans), John Kennedy wrote this speech off of the fact that two African American kids had to be taken to school by Guards in order to not be harassed by people who do not welcome them. The speech was in response to the U.S. National Guard being sent to protect two African American students Vivian Malone and James Hood enrolling at the University of Alabama. Kennedy uses Parallelism , innuendo, pathos, and logos to effectively convince his fellow citizens that discrimination against people just because of their race is immoral. In the opening of his speech Kennedy uses Pathos and logos to persuade Americans that the fact that these two students had to be taken to school with guards …show more content…

Kennedy states, “The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day …” Saying that African Americans are not treated the same and do not have the same opportunities as a Caucasian person would. By expressing these few facts Kennedy communicates to his audience that African Americans have no chance of being as equivalent to Caucasians in America. JFk communicates the idea of, since come people are african American then they are not able to do these things overall. These statements making people think about how difficult it is for them to already have to live in America adding on to discrimination. Then Kennedy connects a thought back to section 1. Kennedy states,” The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities… If an American, because his skin is dark… cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?” Kennedy indirectly in a way questioning Americans being American again as in section one. Precisely as how Kennedy pushed the thought of these “Americans” being biased to the fact that African Americans are Americans as. How could they call themselves