MLK
#1: First watch all of
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (Links to an external site.)
from 1963 (scroll down and click on the play button; make sure your speakers are on). Then, write a couple of sentences describing your initial reactions to this speech. Transcript available here. (Links to an external site.)
#2: Read the Gary Younge article (Links to an external site.)describing some of the rhetorical situation for King’s speech. Pay special attention to what Younge says about the audience that had gathered for King’s speech in Washington D.C. Then, write a paragraph describing how this particular audience contributed to and shaped King’s rhetoric that day, based on your own observations and what you’ve gleaned from Younge’s article. If the crowd or the location had been different, how might King’s rhetoric have changed?
#3: Next, listen to (at least) one of the two following speeches. The first speech is from 1967, and is titled “Beyond Vietnam.” (Links to an external site.)Click on the green play button to hear the audio recording and follow along with the transcript. This speech, given at Riverside Church in New York City, was highly controversial, not only for King’s criticism of the Vietnam War but American militarism in general. You might also want to look at the “Question and Answer Period Following ‘Beyond Vietnam’ Speech” (Links to an external site.) (via Stanford University’s “Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project”), and a NYT editorial from 1967 that is critical of King’s speech: “Dr. King’s Error,” (Links to an external site.)but these are optional.
The other link is King’s final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” (Links to an external site.)It was given March 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, in a church in Memphis, Tennessee. King attended a rally for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, and rose to speak with no notes or preparation. It is improvisational rhetoric at its finest, and many consider it to be his most powerful speech. Click on the play button under King’s photo to listen to the recording.
Both speeches run 45-60 minutes apiece; feel free to listen to both, but you are only required to listen to one. After listening, write a paragraph describing similarities and differences you observe between this speech, and “I Have a Dream.”
Finally, you will evaluate the two speeches you have watched or listened to. Write a paragraph, explaining which speech was more powerful and compelling. Which one had stronger rhetoric? Which one had stronger evidence?
