“I Have a Dream”

A 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on Augus 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

I found the speech very powerful and effective because of its words and expressions which are very persuasive. The rhetoric in the speech never fails to move the audience. Martin Luther King had delivered the speech amazingly and amusingly because it stems from heart.

After listening to his speech, I found that he was excellent at using the verbal elements of delivery, which are pronunciation and enunciation, projection, inflectional, cadence, and the pause.

The speech showed not only what a great speaker Martin Luther King was but also the depth of his spiritual awareness. He was a great man. Together with other brave men and women, he transformed American society from a fake democracy into one in which all people can participate and achieve. The miraculous aspect of his great work is that he transformed an openly racist culture into one of tolerance almost overnight and led a spiritual transformation of the nation.