Forum 3.

I select the speech delivered by Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963, called “I
have a dream”. The topic of this speech was the request that African-American people were
making asking to be treated as equal in a nation where racism and discrimination was
evident. Luther King’s speech is considered one of the most emotive in the history of the
United States. The central point of this message were the dreams of all African-American
that one day they will be treated as equal to white people. With his message he was clear of
what he wanted: justice for African-Americans, to be free from racial discrimination and
that this people have the same opportunities and benefits that society guarantees to white
people.

We can see that Luther King was well prepared for delivering his speech because its
content demonstrates that he made a thorough research of the Bible, the United States
Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, US history, laws and geography. We can
classify this speech as a well written one, because of the connection of its sentences and the
repetition of ideas that stays in our thoughts. The speech also makes comparisons and use
examples of the real life as when we are using the storytelling technique. Some examples
of this storytelling are when Luther King compared the promises made in the Constitution
as a promissory note that they are going to cash as a check. Luther King continued saying
that he hopes that the bank was not bankrupt and that one day the check will be fully
cashed.

This message achieved a complete connection between the audience, the speaker and
the message. The audience is connected with the speaker because they share the same
dreams, the same purposes and also because the audience was looking for justice. The
success of this speech is its common language, common purpose and dreams that the
audience and speaker share. The location selected, the Lincoln Memorial, also confirms the
importance of the message because it was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves.

In terms of the resources used to deliver the speech, even though there were no visual
aids, my opinion is that they were not necessary. The content of the message was so
contundent and emotive that those resources were not needed. If Luther King was going to
deliver this speech in our time, the visual aids that I think could be included were photos or
videos in which all the unfair practices against African-American could be shown to the
rest of the world, not only for those who were at the Lincoln Memorial, but by social
media. With those visual aids I think that the speech would go from excellent to sup erior.

Any word that I can add to this speech would be unnecessary and redundant. Luther
King expressed what was needed to denunciate what was wrong at that moment and what
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would be wrong today if we still discriminate against any person, group or community
because of their color, race, gender, nationality, economic background, sexual preference
or disability. People do not need to be treated differently because of these conditions. If we
do that, we are discriminating against ourselves because we can easily fit in any of those
classifications.

References

Chivers, B., & Shoolbred, M. (2007). A student’s guide to presentations: Making your
presentation count. London, England: SAGE Publications Inc.

Educational Video Group, Inc. [Producer]. (2012). Great speeches, volume 1 (platinum
edition): John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Adolf Hitler, Douglas MacArthur,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Barack Obama [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://digital.films.com.nuc.idm.oclc.org/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=49139#

Morton, S. (2014). The presentation lab: Learn the formula behind powerful presentations.
Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc