The ideas in the speech reflect King's social experiences of
ethnocentric abuse, mistreatment, and exploitation of Black people. The speech draws upon appeals to America's myths as a nation founded to provide freedom and justice to all people, and then reinforces and transcends those
secular mythologies by placing them within a spiritual context by arguing that racial justice is also in accord with
God's will. Thus, the rhetoric of the speech provides redemption to America for its racial sins. King describes the promises made by America as a "
promissory note" on which America has defaulted. He says that "America has given the Negro people a bad check", but that "we've come to cash this check" by marching in Washington, D.C. Widely hailed as a masterpiece of
rhetoric, King's speech
alludes to pivotal documents in American history, including the Emancipation Proclamation, the
US Declaration of Independence, and the
US Constitution. Early in the speech, he alludes to the Gettysburg Address by saying: "Five score years ago ...". In reference to the
abolition of slavery articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, King says: "It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." King's speech used words and ideas from his own speeches and other texts. For years, he had quoted from
Samuel Francis Smith's popular patriotic hymn "
America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)", and referred extensively to the Bible. The idea of
constitutional rights as an "unfulfilled promise" was suggested by
Clarence Jones.) and
Amos 5:24 ("But let justice roll down like water ..."). in Georgia, upon which
a memorial to
Confederate leaders was engraved in the 1920s|250x250pxKing alludes to the
Ku Klux Klan when he calls to "let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia", near
Atlanta; the mountain was a gathering spot for Klan members in the early 20th century. In the 1920s,
the mountain's owners—members themselves—engraved upon it
a memorial to leaders of the
Confederacy: Confederate president
Jefferson Davis, and
Confederate Army generals
Robert E. Lee and
Stonewall Jackson. The end of King's speech alludes to
Galatians 3:28: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus". He also alludes to the opening lines of
Shakespeare's
Richard III ("Now is the
winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer ...") when he remarks that "this sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn ..."
Rhetoric The speech can be dissected by using three rhetorical lenses: voice merging, prophetic voice, and dynamic spectacle. Voice merging is the combining of one's own voice with religious predecessors. Prophetic voice is using rhetoric to speak for a population. A dynamic spectacle has origins from the
Aristotelian definition as "a weak hybrid form of drama, a theatrical concoction that relied upon external factors (shock, sensation, and passionate release) such as televised rituals of conflict and social control." Voice merging is a technique often used by African-American preachers. It combines the voices of previous preachers, excerpts from scriptures, and the speaker's own thoughts to create a unique voice. King uses voice merging in his
peroration when he references the
secular hymn "America". The rhetoric of the speech can be compared to the rhetoric of
Old Testament prophets. During his speech, King speaks with urgency and crisis, giving him a prophetic voice. The prophetic voice must "restore a sense of duty and virtue amidst the decay of venality." An evident example is when King declares that "now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." A dynamic spectacle is dependent on the situation in which it is used. King's speech can be classified as a dynamic spectacle, given "the context of drama and tension in which it was situated", during the civil rights movement and the march.
Similarities to other speakers' works King is said to have used portions of SNCC activist
Prathia Hall's speech at the site of Mount Olive Baptist, a
burned-down African-American church in
Terrell County, Georgia, in September 1962, in which she used the repeated phrase "I have a dream". The church had burned down after it was used for voter registration meetings. The final passage from King's speech closely resembles
Archibald Carey Jr.'s address to the
1952 Republican National Convention: both speeches end with a recitation of the first verse of "America", and the speeches share the name of one of several mountains from which both exhort "let freedom ring". ==Responses==