100 years and the fight wasn't finished.

The problem was supposed to be solved by the Civil War, but it wasn’t. After years of abuse and oppression blacks were set free from the bonds of slavery by the biggest war this nation had ever seen. It looked like they would finally be seen as equals; unfortunately, this was not the case. Even a hundred years after the Civil War blacks still had not obtained their equality in the eyes of whites. The black’s fight for equality gave rise to many powerful leaders in their community: Martin Luther King Jr. being one of the most famous. He became the voice of the black’s movement and delivered an unforgettable speech in behalf of oppressed blacks everywhere that has come to be called the “I Have a Dream” speech. In the speech “I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr. tries to persuade white people to treat blacks equal by alluding to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and other Founding Father’s words.
Martin Luther King Jr. begins the second sentence of his speech with “five score years ago…” which has great symbolism to the start of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which says “four score and seven years ago…” Martin Luther King Jr. compares the struggle blacks were going through in the 1960’s to the same struggles they were going through in the 1860’s by comparing his speech with Lincoln’s. This comparison yields a strong sense of sympathy for the black movement from his audience of listeners, whether they were black or white. Also, Martin Luther King Jr. alludes to both the Gettysburg Address and the written words of Thomas Jefferson when he says “all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’” He does this to increase his respectability among his listeners by showing his knowledge and affluence.
By alluding to the Founding Father’s words, Martin Luther King Jr. was able to increase the strength of his people’s movement. I think his use of rhetoric was smart and was one of the only ways people, specifically whites, would begin to listen to him and his cause.