Martin Luther King Jr

Segregation, racism, and discrimination are all some of the many unfair things that African Americans went through. They made blacks inferior to whites; however, one man stood up to the challenge. This man's name was Martin Luther King Jr. He was a reverend and believed in justice. He was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. He announced that he would give the prize money to the civil rights movement. He stood up against many problems during his time. Martin Luther King Jr. uses textual appeal throughout his speech. His inspirational speech consists of ethos, pathos and logos.

MLK uses a great deal of ethos in his speech. He constantly relates to religion and God. Religion is something everyone can take part in; it is something people turn to during hard times. Religion can be the backbone of people's lives. During times of segregation, and racism, any blacks turned to God for help. It creates a sense of security and trust, and this is exactly what MLK gains from the people. "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children" (2). In religion, God is the creator of the universe, and is always right; therefore, whatever relation MLK makes to God is credible. This allows him to gain access to an ethos that is believable and true. He adds more fuel to the fire by inserting a part of a hymn in his speech. This not only strengthens his ethos, but it allows everyone to see that what he says is important. He uses key words such as "brotherhood" and "all of God's children". It refers to not only blacks, but whites as well. This unbiased usage makes MLK's speech have very credible ethos.

MLK uses logos throughout his speech. He refers back to American history to support his speech. Logos deals with human reasoning, and universal intelligence. History is something that has happened in the past which can not be changed. This makes it incredibly easy for MLK to refer back to reasoning and question the current situation. He uses justice and credible documents from the past to support his speech. The evidence he brings up greatly boosts the logos throughout. "Five score years ago, a great American, in whos symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation ProclamationÐ'... hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in flames of withering injustice" (1). Because the Emancipation Proclamation is referred to by MLK, it greatly questions the reasoning of the current states of racism and segregation. It declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America, and was a climactic point in history. It is a fact of history and inevitably, it makes the people think about just and unjust behavior. It conflicts with their current viewpoint and challenges it. The logos of using history support MLK's speech.

MLK