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I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King

Decent Essays

Commentary on Martin Luther King, Jr.: “I Have a Dream” Speech (1963) On August 28, 1963, nearly a quarter of million people arrived in the District of Columbia for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the midst of the days various events and speeches, one stood out: Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech “ I Have a Dream”. It is a political text in which he called for racial equality and an end to the discrimination. His oration eclipsed the remarks of all other speakers that day and it is among the most quoted American public addresses. According to the U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to …show more content…

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”. He exclaims that now is the time for America to rid itself of racial injustice and segregation and uses the citation“ we can never be satisfied “ as exemplification to explain how African Americans are not experiencing what America is supposed to be all about, stating very loudly in the next statements: “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” The second half of the speech paints the dream of a better, impartial future of racial harmony. The most famous declaration “I have a dream” is repeated constantly in this part and stresses the most important concept that Dr. King wanted to transmit to all people gathered there: it is not impossible to reach and bring to fulfillment men’s aspirations and so on he alluded to: “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream”. Throughout the whole text, Dr. King delivers his “preaching” using several metaphors and an extensive vocabulary. He compares African Americans’ discontent to a “sweltering summer” and

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