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Veronica Ramos
Instructor: Melton
English 5
March 28, 2016
The Fight For Freedom
The strive for equality during the 1960's were fought by many but won by few. Without
these brave men and women who for fought for equality during the civil rights movement our
world wouldnt be the way it is today. People like Martin Luther King Jr. were one of the brave
African Americans who fought for equality in the south during the Civil rights movement. Dr.
King was a man who valued god and the practices non-violent methods like Ghandi to help fight
against police brutality during the time of the civil rights movement. Not only were his nonviolent methods put to use but also his speeches were set forth to inspire the African American
races to rise up to put a stop to all this. One of mr. Kings famous speeches was his I Have a
Dream speech won the hearts of his audience by using the words of the lord, bringing up
phrases of the constitution to help appeal to the audience's emotions.
In Martin Luther King Jr.s iconic I Have a Dream speech, he uses he uses his
voice and background to grab the audience's attention by using lines and phrases from Abraham
Lincolns Gettysburg Address speech, the Constitution, and bible verses to help back his stance
on equality. For example, He states that black men and white men are guaranteed unalienable
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to reiterate that nowhere in the constitution
say who or what race these rights is meant for(King). King is stating that the constitution does
not and should not exclude anyone by race or their social status because these rights are
unalienable.What has been so far gone for the African Americans since the end of slavery has
been equality and the fact that they still havent seen any progress. Dr. King uses this phrase
from the constitution to help show the audience that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and

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that freedom is a lot closer than they thought. King used this as a way to appeal to the audience's
emotions because simply being able to attain the same rights as the whites would be something
that they deserved.
As if the constitution wasnt enough to appeal to the audience, King used the words of the
lord to help prove his point. In a section in his speech King used the phrase of,.... the glory of
the lord shall be revealed, and all the flesh shall see it together.(King). King came from a
religious home where he later grew up to become a pastor which helped him use this to his
advantage because the audience was as religious as he was. The use of religion helps the
audience connect in one way or another because when a community is in a time of crisis they
look for an outlet that brings them back to a sense of serenity which is exactly What King did.
He ultimately tried to persuade his audience to see that equality was meant for all from the start.
The most common method of persuasion in Mr. King's speech is the use pathos because it
is what hooks the audience to see the big picture. His method of pathos is most dominant within
his speech because it is what ultimately captures the hearts of the audience. When King uses the
topic of slavery, segregation and police brutality it hits home for many of the people out in the
audience because they have either lived it or have been told about it and that is what helps push
this speech in the direction of trying to prevent further unjusts in the southern states. The closing
statements of the speech was the strong by stating the people will be able to join together to say
Free at last. We are free at last (King). The word freedom is something that has been used
so many times throughout the civil rights movement but in this speech alone it allows the
audience to see the big picture. Before Kings speech, others used freedom as a way of removing
themselves from the whites but King uses the use of freedom to unite the two races so that they
can be equal not just turn the tables from one race from another. Also the simple fact that we in

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the last sentence is capitalized also helps symbolize all races chanting out that they are free. The
main point and statement of this whole speech was to have everyone be free of the oppression
and free from the brutality forced upon by the whites. Kings used this tactic to be able to get the
audience thinking that there is a balance between freedom and order;and that freedoms doesnt
have to mean freedom from just brutality and oppression but freedom in which everyone can
coexist together as one.
The message that King tried to focus on in this speech was that all men were created
equal and that no person should be denied the rights put in place by the constitution and the
declaration of independence. For example the statement of the unalienable rights and the
phrase that all men are created equal helped emphasize the fact that those rights were a given
and not an option(King). When bringing up the constitution it does not state that everything is
written just for the whites but it was written for every person that had the same opportunity as the
white man. Every person has fought for the same rights when it came to war and equality so
there should be no contest that every person should have the same liberties and freedoms. With
the help of these words it helped back up Kings arguments and it also helped bring credibility
while he was giving this speech.Kings speech brought him credibility by using the constitution
because it helped him show his bigger picture and the fact that he was with the NAACP it helped
give him that law credibility. Despite his speech heavily appealing to the audience's emotions,
the little facts that he incorporated into his speech allowed it to be credible. Without the
incorporation of the Constitution his speech wouldn't have given his audience the push they
needed to see the oppression that they were experiencing during the civil rights movement.
Over all, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech that used different methods of persuasion
to prove to every person at the march on washington that they deserve equal freedoms and no

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one can deprive them of those rights. Although King lived a short life, he was able to use his
words to impact the lives of many and allow them to see that equality is meant for all not for just
one type of person. Once everyone was slowly granted these rights they were people were able to
see the light at the end of the tunnel. Because of Martin Luther King Jr. ordinary people were
allowed to distinguish the difference between being slaves and being actually free from the
injustices of the south. With the march on washington in 1963 and many other marches
conducted by the leaders of this era we as citizens might not have had the equal opportunity to be
where we are today.

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Work Cited
"King Speaks to March on Washington." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 12
May 2016.