by Richard L. Weaver IIMartin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered August 28, 1963, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Given from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to over two-hundred thousand civil rights supporters, the speech lasted only sixteen minutes. According to U.S. Congressman, John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, “"Dr. King had the power, the ability and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a modern day pulpit. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations.”
There was more taking place when King gave his speech than would at first be apparent. To the untrained eye, his speech was moving, encouraging, even galvanizing. To the trained eye, however, it was truly a model speech and, indeed, one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history. It has been ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
The obvious question is, “Why is it a model speech?”
For 22 years I delivered a lecture entitled, “Persuasion: The Unity of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos,” to close to 80,000 undergraduates. In this lecture I examined the speech. This essay is a condensation of that lecture, and I have divided it into the three parts: logos, pathos, and ethos.
Logos means logic, and as a persuasive strategy, speakers use a clearly stated main purpose, a well-defined thought pattern, and effective major arguments supported by evidence. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King used mostly his own personal experience and observations to support his major arguments. His purpose statement is, “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of King’s logic was how he organized his ideas. He followed Monroe’s motivated sequence. It is a pattern that works because it follows the normal process of human reasoning. I told students that if I had to pick out one piece of information that I considered most important — from all of my 15 lectures — it would be this five-step sequence. If you ever have to give a problem-solving persuasive speech, I highly recommend it. It is so effective and powerful, most advertisements you see on television follow it precisely.
The five steps of the Monroe motivated sequence are attention, need, satisfaction, visualization and action.
In the attention step speakers call attention to the situation. King, speaking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calls attention to Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the situation of the Negro today (“One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”), and the fact that the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence granting all people the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have not been fulfilled.
For the need step, speakers describe the difficulty, trouble, distress, crisis, emergency, or urgency. King says, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation [what the Constitution and Declaration of Independence promise], America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” And why have they come to Washington, D.C.? — to “remind America of the fierce urgency of now.”
In the satisfaction step, speakers tell listeners how to satisfy the need they establish. King says, “We must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.” To march ahead, he said, “We can never be satisfied.” Then he tells listeners to go back home knowing their situation can and will be changed.
For visualization, speakers offer listeners a vision of what life can be once their solution (offered in the satisfaction step) is adopted. This is where King offers listeners his dream: “I have a dream” offered along with five different descriptions of what life can and will be like in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, in communities, and around the world.
The final stage is the action step when speakers offer listeners a specific course of action to follow. King’s action step occurs when he asks his audience to “Let freedom ring,” and he uses the phrase at the end of the speech focusing on eight states symbolizing the whole nation.
Pathos means emotion, and King depends on his use of language to draw emotion from his listeners. Figures of speech predominate. Antithesis, or the setting of one clause or other member of a sentence against another to which it is opposed, is heavily used. “It came as a joyous daybreak to end their long night of captivity,” is the first of many examples of antithesis used in the speech.
King also uses many other figures of speech. Simile is the comparison of two unlike things, connected with the words “like” or “as” such as “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Metaphor is a compressed simile (the “like” or “as” is eliminated) and they are abundant: “manacles of segregation,” “symphony of brotherhood.” Allusions, or references to literary, historical, and biblical events, occur often. “Five score years ago” refers to the Gettysburg Address, and there are biblical allusions to Psalm 30:5, Amos 5:24, and Isaiah 40:4. In addition, King uses personification, hyperbole, contrast, colloquialisms, repetition, refrain (anaphora), and parallelism.
Ethos means the character of the speaker in the eyes of the audience. King was born into a well-educated, successful family, graduated from Morehouse College, and, as the outstanding member of his senior class, from Crozer Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1955, and served as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1955 to 1968. His Nobel Peace Prize was received one year after this speech was given.
The “I Have a Dream” speech served as a precursor to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was Time’s “Man of the Year” for 1963. As a speech, it was the greatest and most notable in history and served as a model for the way it demonstrated the unity of logos, pathos, and ethos.
--------------------------------
For pictures, a YouTube audio and video of the speech, and for a text of the “I Have a Dream” speech, see: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
For an online biography of Martin Luther King Jr., see: nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
--------------------------------
There was more taking place when King gave his speech than would at first be apparent. To the untrained eye, his speech was moving, encouraging, even galvanizing. To the trained eye, however, it was truly a model speech and, indeed, one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history. It has been ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.
The obvious question is, “Why is it a model speech?”
For 22 years I delivered a lecture entitled, “Persuasion: The Unity of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos,” to close to 80,000 undergraduates. In this lecture I examined the speech. This essay is a condensation of that lecture, and I have divided it into the three parts: logos, pathos, and ethos.
Logos means logic, and as a persuasive strategy, speakers use a clearly stated main purpose, a well-defined thought pattern, and effective major arguments supported by evidence. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King used mostly his own personal experience and observations to support his major arguments. His purpose statement is, “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of King’s logic was how he organized his ideas. He followed Monroe’s motivated sequence. It is a pattern that works because it follows the normal process of human reasoning. I told students that if I had to pick out one piece of information that I considered most important — from all of my 15 lectures — it would be this five-step sequence. If you ever have to give a problem-solving persuasive speech, I highly recommend it. It is so effective and powerful, most advertisements you see on television follow it precisely.
The five steps of the Monroe motivated sequence are attention, need, satisfaction, visualization and action.
In the attention step speakers call attention to the situation. King, speaking from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calls attention to Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the situation of the Negro today (“One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”), and the fact that the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence granting all people the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have not been fulfilled.
For the need step, speakers describe the difficulty, trouble, distress, crisis, emergency, or urgency. King says, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation [what the Constitution and Declaration of Independence promise], America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” And why have they come to Washington, D.C.? — to “remind America of the fierce urgency of now.”
In the satisfaction step, speakers tell listeners how to satisfy the need they establish. King says, “We must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.” To march ahead, he said, “We can never be satisfied.” Then he tells listeners to go back home knowing their situation can and will be changed.
For visualization, speakers offer listeners a vision of what life can be once their solution (offered in the satisfaction step) is adopted. This is where King offers listeners his dream: “I have a dream” offered along with five different descriptions of what life can and will be like in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, in communities, and around the world.
The final stage is the action step when speakers offer listeners a specific course of action to follow. King’s action step occurs when he asks his audience to “Let freedom ring,” and he uses the phrase at the end of the speech focusing on eight states symbolizing the whole nation.
Pathos means emotion, and King depends on his use of language to draw emotion from his listeners. Figures of speech predominate. Antithesis, or the setting of one clause or other member of a sentence against another to which it is opposed, is heavily used. “It came as a joyous daybreak to end their long night of captivity,” is the first of many examples of antithesis used in the speech.
King also uses many other figures of speech. Simile is the comparison of two unlike things, connected with the words “like” or “as” such as “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Metaphor is a compressed simile (the “like” or “as” is eliminated) and they are abundant: “manacles of segregation,” “symphony of brotherhood.” Allusions, or references to literary, historical, and biblical events, occur often. “Five score years ago” refers to the Gettysburg Address, and there are biblical allusions to Psalm 30:5, Amos 5:24, and Isaiah 40:4. In addition, King uses personification, hyperbole, contrast, colloquialisms, repetition, refrain (anaphora), and parallelism.
Ethos means the character of the speaker in the eyes of the audience. King was born into a well-educated, successful family, graduated from Morehouse College, and, as the outstanding member of his senior class, from Crozer Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1955, and served as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1955 to 1968. His Nobel Peace Prize was received one year after this speech was given.
The “I Have a Dream” speech served as a precursor to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was Time’s “Man of the Year” for 1963. As a speech, it was the greatest and most notable in history and served as a model for the way it demonstrated the unity of logos, pathos, and ethos.
--------------------------------
For pictures, a YouTube audio and video of the speech, and for a text of the “I Have a Dream” speech, see: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
For an online biography of Martin Luther King Jr., see: nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
--------------------------------
Contact Richard L. Weaver II
-----------------------------------------
And Then Some: Essays to Entertain, Motivate, & Inspire - Book 1Signed copy of Book 1 for $16.47 while supplies last!
i agree
ReplyDeleteYes. Good review and I am inclined to agree.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any problems with writing, feel free to ask our writers for help! Evolution Writers is ready to help with any kind of academic writing!
ReplyDelete