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    I Have A Dream - Looking at Language - Activity Sheet

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    Sarah Anderson
    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech uses powerful imagery to advocate for civil rights. He describes the emancipation proclamation as a "great beacon of light" but says 100 years later black people remain "not free" and "languish in poverty." King lists injustices like police brutality and segregated public spaces. He says civil rights advocates will "never be satisfied" until equality is achieved. The speech references the suffering of civil rights activists and calls for freedom to ring out across the United States.

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    I Have A Dream - Looking at Language - Activity Sheet

    Uploaded by

    Sarah Anderson
    32 views3 pages
    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech uses powerful imagery to advocate for civil rights. He describes the emancipation proclamation as a "great beacon of light" but says 100 years later black people remain "not free" and "languish in poverty." King lists injustices like police brutality and segregated public spaces. He says civil rights advocates will "never be satisfied" until equality is achieved. The speech references the suffering of civil rights activists and calls for freedom to ring out across the United States.

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    I Have a Dream - Looking at Language - Activity Sheet

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    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech uses powerful imagery to advocate for civil rights. He describes the emancipation proclamation as a "great beacon of light" but says 100 years later black people remain "not free" and "languish in poverty." King lists injustices like police brutality and segregated public spaces. He says civil rights advocates will "never be satisfied" until equality is achieved. The speech references the suffering of civil rights activists and calls for freedom to ring out across the United States.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    32 views3 pages

    I Have A Dream - Looking at Language - Activity Sheet

    Uploaded by

    Sarah Anderson
    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech uses powerful imagery to advocate for civil rights. He describes the emancipation proclamation as a "great beacon of light" but says 100 years later black people remain "not free" and "languish in poverty." King lists injustices like police brutality and segregated public spaces. He says civil rights advocates will "never be satisfied" until equality is achieved. The speech references the suffering of civil rights activists and calls for freedom to ring out across the United States.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    ‘I Have a Dream’ – Looking at Language

    Below are several extracts from the speech ‘I Have a Dream’ by Martin Luther King. Look at the imagery
    being used by Martin Luther King. What is he saying in each case about the civil rights movement and
    the place of black people in the society of 1960s America?

    “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the
    Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of light and hope to
    millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as the
    joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

    But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro
    is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chain of discrimination. One hundred
    years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material
    prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corner of American society
    and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful
    condition.”

    1. What uses of imagery do you see in the quotation above? How are they used for effect?

    2. This quotation comes from the beginning of the speech given by Martin Luther King. Who is the
    ‘great American’ he is referring to? What did this man do? (Hint: King’s speech took place beneath
    a monument to the man he described in his speech).

    3. What conditions does King say black people were living under in the 1960s? What words from the
    world of slavery are used here?

    “We cannot walk alone, and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march
    ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights: “When will
    you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable
    horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue
    of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot
    be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can
    never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity
    by signs stating “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied so long as the Negro in Mississippi
    cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are
    not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a
    mighty stream.”

    Page 1 of 3 visit twinkl.com


    4. Why does King say people are still not satisfied? List some of the grievances he has about American
    society in the 1960s.

    5. What rhetorical and oral technique is being used here to make his speech more effective? How does
    it work to have a greater impact on the person listening to the speech?

    6. When King states they ‘will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness
    like a might stream’, what language technique is he using? Why is this
    effective at this point in his speech?

    “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great
    trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow
    jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for
    freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and
    staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the
    veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the
    faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.”

    7. What are the ‘trials and tribulations’ King mentions here?

    8. Why does King describe the jail cells as ‘narrow’? What are the alternative understandings of that
    word and what then is the implied meaning?

    9. Persecution and police brutality are described as being other things. What are these? How effective
    is this use of metaphor?

    10. What do you think he means by ‘unearned suffering is redemptive’?

    “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country
    ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s
    pride, from every mountainside let freedom ring.”

    And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring. From the
    prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York,
    let freedom ring, from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring, from the
    snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the crevatial slopes of California.

    But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from
    Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From
    every mountainside.

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    11. What song is King quoting from here? Why do you think he includes this in his speech?

    12. What technique does King use again here? How effective is it?

    13. Why does Martin Luther King separate the section about Georgia and Tennessee and Mississippi
    from the rest of the text about freedom? What is he implying here?

    Further Work:

    Now watch the full speech by Martin Luther King. Try to imagine that he needed another section to be
    added to the speech. What else might he have written about? What language techniques might have
    been used? Try to write your own short addition to Martin Luther King’s epic speech – it should be 2-3
    short paragraphs in length.

    Page 3 of 3 visit twinkl.com

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