Rhetorical Analysis Of W. E. B Dubois's Speech

W.E.B DuBois, a well known civil liberties advocate, in his speech, Niagara Movement, illuminates the need for racial equality in America. In his speech, his purpose is to call white Americans to action, as well as highlight the effects of the African American’s white superiors excluding them from simple, constitutionally given, liberties. He adopts an authoritative tone in order to establish a feeling of guilt for white people who determine the rights given to African-Americans. DuBois convinces his audience that African-Americans should become equal on a social, economical, and political level, through the use of emotional diction, reasonable ideas and a dominant tone. He is able to create guilt and shame through his fierce diction regarding

By way of illustration, he declares, “We want the laws enforced against...white as well as blacks...we want justice even for criminals and outlaws...we want the Fourteenth Amendment carried out to the letter and every state disenfranchised in Congress which attempts to disenfranchise its rightful voters” (DuBois 2). The example provides credibility and morality for DuBois by exhibiting his, as well as African-American’s, respect for America’s history and respect for the fair treatment for all Americans. It is clear DuBois does not want African-Americans to be put on a pedestal, he simply wants equality amongst all Americans, showing his morality. His knowledge of the Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment, gives him the credibility he needs to attract his audience’s will to work for his cause. DuBois has to show he is a credible, and moral speaker in order to present to his white audience that he deserves to be listened to, and that African-Americans, including himself, should recieve their constitutionally and God given

Throughout his speech, W.E.B DuBois tears the audience down by making them feel guilty, and destroying their credibility, however, in the end, he gives his audience the power to feel patriotism for the call to action he previously presented. Key words such as “courage,” “signs of promise” and “open gates of Opportunity and Peace,” gives DuBois the power to explain hard work is the key to returning back to the true vision of Americans in which all men are created equal, and all men deserve the same rights (DuBois 3). By making the audience feel as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, he is able to keep the them interested in his purpose to gain civil liberties for the African-Americans. This is essential to the overall productivity of the speech due to the fact that DuBois continuously makes the audience feel guilty for the status of the African-Americans, and in order to leave the audience willing to fight for the cause, he has to give them a reason to fight. Wrapping his argument up with touching diction, he makes the audience feel as if there is a chance to achieve racial