Extra Credit

Destiny Ornelas

Mr. Soeth

English 3AP

March 1, 2011

REHUGO Analysis: History – speech

A.      Martin Luther King Jr. gives his speech, “I Have A Dream,” on August 28 1963 to end segregation and try to bring the nation together as a whole.

B.      Suffering from segregation his whole life, Martin Luther King uses his own experiences and experiences that every African American has to go through to show his audience how segregation is unlawful and unjust.  Martin Luther King wants the nation to not overlook this very serious condition and realize that segregation needs to be ended in order to protect the rights of all Americans.

C.       King does an excellent job at effectively showing his audience how discrimination should be abolished and equality should be established. He explains how “rights of life, liberty, and the  pursuit of happiness” were given to Americans, but the discrimination in the world has prevented African Americans from receiving their “unalienable rights.” He tells how the “Negros discontent will not pass” if the nation overlooks this urgent situation and that if America really is a great nation they will live by the saying that all men, black or white, are created equal .

D.      King shows that America took a step forward in racial equality and gave millions of people hope by alluding to the Emancipation Proclamation, but then he makes his audience realize that even though that was a great thing in history, we took a step back because segregation prevents African Americans from having the same rights that White Americans do. He also alludes to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to show that the “architects of our republic” wrote these things to ensure “unalienable rights” to all men, both white and black, but this terrible segregation is, again, holding back African Americans from having the same equal rights. Since King has been living with discrimination his whole life, he exemplifies segregation by using examples like “black men’s voting rights” and “white men’s signs” to show his white audience more specifically how it is to live in a segregated world where an African American finds himself “an exile in his own land.”