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Analysis of Mlk's I Have a Dream Speech

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Analysis of Mlk's I Have a Dream Speech
Analysis > Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech There are few more well-known or powerful speeches that that given by civil rights leader Martin Luther King on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
The most famous paragraph, embedded in the middle of the speech, is as follows:
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."
So lets analyze this for the linguistic power. Speech words | Analysis | I have a dream that one day | The dream is a frame for the future and sets the stage for the rest of the words. 'Dream' is vague aspiration. 'one day' starts to make it specific. | this nation will rise up | A hint of revolution, a threat to white people, that may be scary but is tempered by subsequent words. | and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." | A direct quote from Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President and author of the Declaration of Independence.Will be accepted as right by everyone. Lends gravitas to the speech.'Creed' has religious connotations.Implication that this is not true today, over 150 years after it was said. | I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia | Repeating the 'dream', hammering home the hope for the future.'red' hints at blood,
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