"I Have a Dream"

On August 8, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. At this time the American Civil Rights movement was taking place with full force, and Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the major leaders. He gave this speech in Washington D.C., on the steps if front of the Lincoln Memorial with many of his supporters listening intently. In his speech, Dr. Martin Luther King is trying to persuade the white citizens of America to treat blacks with equality by building common ground.

Dr. King begins building common ground from the beginning of his speech. He starts of by saying, “five score years ago.” This simple phrase immediately takes everyone’s mind to the Gettysburg Address. By doing this he is reminding his audience that Abraham Lincoln was fighting for the same thing that they are still fighting for today. Abraham Lincoln was the black leader just as much as he was the white’s leader. In his speech, Dr. King also refers to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He quotes the Declaration of Independence by saying that, “all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In quoting this, he builds common ground by saying that the documents that this country was founded on are the same for whites and blacks. Dr. Martin Luther King tried to build common ground between the whites and blacks in his speech so that people will see that the color of ones skin does not make them different.

The strategy of building common ground was an effective strategy because it made people think about what they were basing their racial discrimination on. If he could get the white people to see that they were actually not that different from the blacks then more progress could be made in the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King did an excellent job of building common ground in his speech.