Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream Speech

W.E.B. DU BOIS

“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God 's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”(American Rhetoric). These where the famous words spoken by the famous Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights leader, in his “I have a dream speech” delivered on August 28, 1963. One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation passed on January 1, 1863, which freed all the
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder”(Paragraph 3). Du Bois referred to double consciousness from African Americans viewing themselves, individually and as a group, through the eyes of the society they live in. Du Bois saw the African American society with so little rank which truly, it was very low in
Du Bois, during his time suffered a lot from simply being black. He however is a role model for how much he contributed to the society. He did so much during his life and is a great inspiration to many including myself, having never heard of him. The African American culture has much to offer and this place wouldn’t be the same without them. As Du Bois mentions "He would not want to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not want to bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world." Du Bois’ essay was full of meaningful words. He was very smart intellectual and stood out in a crowd of students. He was looked upon by his teachers and knew he was a bright child. He went on and was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor throughout his life. However, on August 27, 1963 the day before Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech, his life ended in Ghana due to health