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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Civil Rights Movement

648 Words3 Pages

Renowned and revered labor union organizer and civil rights leader, César Chávez, wanted to effectively galvanize his supporters, poor migrant workers, and reassure them of their goals and trajectory. Chávez utilized the rhetorical device of ideological and philosophical juxtaposition between his farm workers’ movement and Dr. King’s black Civil Rights Movement.In attempting to do so, he was able to show his audience, oppressed farm workers drowning in poverty, the immense success of the black Civil Rights Movement and the great respect Martin Luther King Jr. received all through his philosophy of total nonviolence. Due to the fact that Chávez himself was a victim of systematic oppression and crippling poverty, he understands what lies in …show more content…

And so, he knows that they see violence as just another option next to demonstration, striking, and boycotting. In order to curtail this growing desire, he heavily references the life’s work of the Reverend King; saying outrightly how his “example” has “inspired much of the philosophy and strategy” of his movement (L. 3 - 5). In that declaration of philosophical and moral juxtaposition, he sets the basis for his entire speech. Chávez repeatedly insinuates and references the main pillar of Dr. King’s ideology: “for every violent act committed against us, we respond with nonviolence” (L. 23 - 24). He wishes to make the audience, the poor, angry field workers, feel doubt and trepidation on their way to choosing violence as a method of triumph. Chávez wants them to realize and think about the success, results, and moral integrity that Dr. King instilled in himself and his followers and even of Mahatma Gandhi with his “nearly perfect instrument of nonviolent change” (L. 62 - 63). With frequent historical references of Gandhi’s victory in India through boycotts and Dr. King’s positive results in the US through demonstrations and marches, he wishes for his supporters to remind themselves of their values, their Faith, and most of all, their mission: achieve economic equality and compensation for their hard, dedicated

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