Use of Rhetoric

Although it had been 100 years after the slaves had been freed, African-Americans could still hardly be considered as free as whites, especially in places as racist as the south. Blacks grew tired of this inequality during the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Junior was greatly involved in leading that movement. In the speech “I Have A Dream” Martin Luther King Jr. tries to persuade white people to treat blacks equally by alluding to historically important speeches and documents.

One tool King used was to make references to famous speeches and documents. He alludes to the Gettysburg address in the beginning of his speech, also in the next paragraph he talks about how the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence guarantee equal rights to all men. The reason he did this is because these were things that were important to white people, they cared about the rights granted in the Constitution and the history of their country. He makes a logical appeal saying that if you believe in these things then you should treat blacks equal to whites because these documents say that all men are created equal. When he makes references to these things he also helps establish his ethos because now we know that he is educated and knows about history. It also gives us a patriotic and emotional appeal when we hear about the history of our country which would be very relevant to whites during that time.

I think that this device was very effective he used all three appeals ethos, logos, and pathos in just one rhetorical device and just a few paragraphs. When I read this it seems ridiculous that people would continue to be racist after an argument as good as his. He was also ethical in his argument; instead of using bad rhetoric, he still made a good argument using good and ethical rhetorical tools.