Extra Credit

myrna nashed
Mr. Soeth
English 3AP
March 1, 2011

A. Martin Luther King Jr.- “I Have a Dream”

B. In 1963 racial discrimination set nationwide rage and protesting. This speech was given near the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 in attempt to open peoples’ eyes to the realization that their freedom in the society was “chained by discrimination.”

C. Martin Luther King Jr. does an outstanding job in opening people’s eyes because he’s trying to get not only African Americans but also white men to join and become as one whole community. King directly tells them that they have to fight for equality because they have been discriminated against for hundreds of years but his intentions are good, wanting to give them hope to end all the tribulations that they have been through. King also uses repetition such as “One hundred years” emphasizing that this is not just about now, but it’s been happening for years. That it’s not just about generations now, but generations to come.

D. “In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."….. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." In this passage King uses the metaphor that African Americans have come to receive what numerous people have come to America to gain, which the forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independent “Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” but when they did come to receive this “check” in hope of greater and better things, America gave them false hope by a “bad check” raising African Americans expectations, then suddenly telling them that they don’t have enough by marking the check as “insufficient,” as to tell them that they don’t have as much as equal rights as the whites do.
“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as ….cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. ….We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot 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. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." King exclaims that injustice is everywhere in the cities and they will not seize to stop protesting until their voice has been heard by using repetition, saying that they will never be satisfied until things change for the better. King states that they will keep fighting for their rights until they win, and in the last sentence he uses a metaphor explaining that they will not stop challenging the law, till they have justice. These statements show that King was not just trying to prove a point but to encourage African Americans to keep on fighting for equality, in their communities.

• "American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream." American Rhetoric: The Power of Oratory in the United States. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. .
• "I Have A Dream" Speech (1963)." Welcome to ClassBrain.com. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. .