Rehetoric in Maritn Luther King Jr.´s Speech - 744 Words

On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial concerning the Civil Rights movement. His speech resonated throughout the nation as his passionate and commanding voice resounded over the fields that lay before the Lincoln Memorial. Many consider this speech the â€Å"epitome of modern Rhetoric.† In his speech, King utilizes the three disciplines of Rhetoric, ethos, pathos, and logos, with finesse and skill. As King stood before the massive crowd of Americans, he urged the citizens of the United States to turn their hatred of colored people into a hatred of the true evil: racism. King continually states that the black people are being held back by the â€Å"chains of discrimination.† King uses this to make the audience†¦show more content†¦Firstly, it stirs even further anger in the audience, which King expertly directs towards the prejudice and the racism themselves rather than the men responsible for such atrocities. Secondly, it boo sted his credibility. King already had a good standing with the people and was considered a titan of the Civil Rights movement. The vast majority of his audience already considered him a highly credible and believable source of information and would follow his lead in the movement. Nonetheless, the use of the afore mentioned sources provides credibility to his speech to those in the audience who did not find King to be a credible speaker. Those that did not agree with King faced another problem: the logical argument he presents. King’s utilization of logos, logic, is much less prominent than his usage of pathos or ethos. The logical argument within King’s speech is proven, for the most part, by the use of his sources of ethos. For example, most people believe that keeping a promise is a major standard for determining ones credibility. So, if the government breaks the promises in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, one would logically say that the government has lost its credibility. If the government has lost its credibility, then this puts racism in a new perspective because the