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Rhetorical Analysis: The Civil Rights Address

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Title of Your Report: Why should people of all colors not be treated as equals? President John F. Kennedy answered just that in a speech regarding civil rights, particularly, “all men should be created equal” on the fateful day of June 11, 1963 at the White House. Kennedy is regarding the people of color that do not have the same opportunities and freedom as those who are white. Therefore, in JFK’s speech “the civil rights address” he is striving towards people of all colors being treated as equals, through parallelism, logos, and rhetorical questions. In the “civil rights address” JFK uses parallelism in his speech to strengthen his argument, people of color are not being treated fairly, resulting in a reason to change. In the words of JFK …show more content…

He supports this claim by stating that “every American should enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color” (para 3), to proclaim what is possible in the United States Of America. JFK uses parallelism to lay the same objective throughout his speech, the idea that there needs to be a change in the way people are treated. Additionally, JFK uses Logos to appeal to his listeners' logic, truly showing the disadvantage people of color have in the United States Of America. Using the statements “12 as much chance of completing high school, 13 as much of a chance of completing college, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed” (para 4), JFK states the exact statistics. Using Logic JFK has a reason for this whole idea. He isn't just saying that people with color have a disadvantage, he has facts that support the whole …show more content…

This rhetorical device isn't used to interact with the audience, but to draw attention to the idea that white people find themselves ranked higher than people of color, which is unjust. People are not willing to put themselves in the shoes of a person of color because they know that they would not want to be a person of color in this period of time. In the year of 1963, a courageous man, also known as JFK, stood at the White House facing a crowd of people and delivered his “Civil Rights Address” speech focusing on the idea that all men should be treated as equals, not judged by the color of their skin, or where they came from. JFK, once a president of the US, used rhetorical devices to strengthen his claim that he is working towards an egalitarian society, using devices such as parallelism, logos, and rhetorical questions. This speech represents something we are still working towards today as citizens of the

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