Honest Abe

The civil war was a dark period of the United States’ past, but one that saw great advances in the rights of African Americans. As president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln led this nation towards greater equality for all of its citizens. However, many of the people that Lincoln worked so hard to liberate were persecuted for over a hundred years after the end of the civil war. In 1963, a large civil rights movement began that would lead to the signing of a new civil rights bill and law, largely because of a very effective speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. However, many African Americans are still suffering from intolerance and racism, and the principles that were fought for in the civil rights movement in the 1960’s are still important. In his speech “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King, Jr. tries to persuade white people to treat black people as equals by referring to Abraham Lincoln in an effort to remind Americans of past cultural struggles.
He begins the speech using the words “five score years ago,” which is the same language that Americans remember from Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg address.” By using language that reminds Americans of past heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr. appeals to a sense of pride that most Americans feel. Throughout his speech, he quotes the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, while praising them and describing them with words like “sacred” and “inspired.” This made the listeners apply the rights that they feel they deserve as citizens of the country on which these documents and leaders founded to all people living with the country; blacks too deserved those “unalienable rights.” Martin Luther King associated himself and the black people with the leaders and struggles of the civil war, and the powerful rhetorical tool helped bring to pass the civil rights bills that were subsequently signed.