Martin Luther King's studies at Crozer and Boston led him to explore the works of the Indian nationalist Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose ideas became the core of his own philosophy of non-violent protest. While in Boston, he met Coretta Scott of Marion, Alabama. They were married in June 1953, and the following year King accepted an appointment as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
On a visit to India in 1959 King was able to work out more clearly his understanding of Satyagraha, Gandhi's principle of non-violent persuasion, which King had determined to use as his main instrument of social protest. The next year he gave up his pastorate in Montgomery to become copastor (with his father) of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, a strategic move that enabled him to participate more effectively in the national leadership of the burgeoning civil rights movement.
The speech itself contained a lot of different methods to provide the thrilling effect of it.
He uses a lot of metaphors to clarify to his points or issues so that all ages can understand and follow them.
His first metaphor is “In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check”, He used the idea of cashing a cheque in relation to their civil rights so that everyone was able to understand and relate to it.
“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation”, this is again relating to money as a way of describing the state of affairs. These were that the black Americans would refuse to give up until they got what they wanted as they believed if they didn’t give up hope then surely they would win their battle.
