The key message in the speech is that all people are created equal and, although not the case in America at the time, King felt it must be the case for the future. He argued passionately and powerfully.
The most famous paragraph carries the theme “I have a dream” and the phrase is repeated constantly to hammer home King’s inspirational concepts.
While the address has a very strong message for white people and hints at revolution, King’s words are mostly about peace, offering a vision everyone could buy into. At the end of the speech he brings in a unifying passage themed around freedom:
- Religion, as he was a Baptist and at the heart of the crisis and used his religious platform to highlight prejudice to both black and whites
He was involved with campaigning such as the Montgomery bus boycott and had a peaceful protest about the injustice for poverty
- He was a Baptist minister, and he was also the president of the southern Christian leader conference which demonstrated how he was actively involved with the church
- He revolutionized black rights, unified all people, stopped racism, segregation and injustice and said that white and black are just colors and have no bearing on the soul, attitudes or beliefs of the people underneath the skin color
- Why was Martin Luther King influential?
Martin Luther King was an inspirational and influential speaker; he had the capacity to move and uplift his audiences. In particular he could offer a vision of hope. He captured the injustice of the time but also felt that this injustice was like a passing cloud. His speeches were largely free of revenge, instead focusing on the need to move forward. His passionate, but non violent protests, helped to raise awareness of racial inequalities in America, leading to significant political change. Martin Luther King was also an eloquent orator who captured the imagination and hearts of people, both black and white.
- Racial segregation and injustice, progress, economic and political discrimination and human and civil rights.
He was trying to raise awareness on human and civil rights. His goal was to communicate and engage to highlight to people and make them aware of what was happening. He was deeply into religion and his influences were jesus
