The ratio of response from the class for our first blog homework (nine for 25) was not inspiring any Buckeye pride, my friends. Thank you to the ones who did take the time and effort to do this assignment, but it makes me wonder why there was such low participation?
Perhaps it's my fault as I didn't give you enough instruction. Perhaps some of you are still unfamiliar with how the blog works when you are supposed to use it at home. Perhaps some of you simply forgot or did not want to do your homework.
In any case, let's do better this next time, and let's try again.
So this time read and listen to Dr. King's speech on that day as you will see the link below. Read actively and pick a part of the speech that means the most to you. Take some quotes from it to share in your Comment and tell us why this part of the speech stands out to you.
This way we will have something specific in our comments, and in writing, specific is almost always better!
Okay, here are the links and I look forward to your specific comments on this great historic speech by Dr. King.
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyR8h9iimw4
The line that stood out to me the most was "One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." One hundred years before King said these words, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln. This is what King is referring to, saying that although a long amount of time has passed since the ending of slavery, segregation and discrimination are still are still a major hindrance for African Americans in earning equality in the American society. By using the words manacles and chains to describe how segregation and discrimination holds them back, he connected this to how actual chains and manacles held back slaves physically from being free. I think in this speech this is one of the things that people needed to hear most. Yes, they were freed from slavery 100 years ago, but what King was trying to do was more than that. He was trying to eliminate the boundaries that kept the children and grandchildren of those freed slaves from being equal to every other American citizen. All of this meaning combined filled his audience with the feeling that it was time for change.
ReplyDeleteThe line that stood out to you was indeed a very powerful line with a lot of meaning behind the words that King spoke that day. I like how you used the comparison of the words manacles and chains as it holds segregation and discrimination back but it also physically holds the slaves from being free. While reading the speech I did not make that connection and your comment on it gave that sentence more meaning to the way I read that line.
DeleteThe line that stood out to me was "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check has come back marked "insufficient funds."" The creators of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence wrote that sacred obligation that all men including the blacks would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Well as King stated America failed at that promise but that so called bad check was not going to stop them from believing that there are enough funds so all men can have the same opportunities in this nation. It was a turning point in the speech. King wanted all to hear that he refused to give up, he was going to cash his check in and demand in return that he receive his rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He was tired of seeing blacks give up and was ready to lead his audience out into the world to cash their checks and in return get the riches of freedom and their security of justice they deserved.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech is probably the most famous speech in America. He changed the way people thought of other people. One of the quotes that i liked was when he said "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." He basically summed up the way people treated African Americans. The African American people could not go outside their houses without getting criticized or abused. Most places at the time had a white’s only sign outside their doors and they did not let anyone in who wasn’t white. Because of MLK that all changed, There is still racism but not as much as the 1900s.
ReplyDeleteThe passage from the speech i really thought stood out was"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I chose this passage because all men are created equal and freedom is equality. Through this passage he creates a strong counterexample to blacks being unequal to whites.
ReplyDeleteThe line that stood out most for me was "With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together knowing that we will be free one day". This line just shows that one, they were going to stay together no matter what they were put through and two, they were not going to give up this faith of freedom. Their faith was like their glue and their rock. It held them together and pushed them to keep fighting and hoping. The mere thought of being free one day took away all the fear of struggle and jail because they knew it would continue to happen. But they weren't going a lone, they were together along with their faith.
ReplyDeleteI liked the quote Dr. King made in the speech saying "We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote." This puts in perspective that the previous weak efforts of giving "equal" amenities and rights for all races had been unsuccessful. Dr. King speaks on behalf of the black community when he says their voting situation is not adequate. He says later in the speech, "Let us not wallow in the valley of despair". This builds on the previous comment in regards that King feels not only voting is an area of discrimination, but all aspects of life in general for the black community.
ReplyDeleteThe speech that he gave was truly amazing. The part that stuck out most to me was when he said " One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." It really stands out to me because i pictured that in my head, and saw what he was talking about. to imagine something, for me helps me understand it better than anything else can. Also, he kept repeating "a hundred years ago" over and over. That showed you that it wasn't all recent and they have been dealing with this for many years.
ReplyDeleteThe line that stood out to me was "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." It amazed me because he points out that Americans try to show that the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution are "sacred" objects. But they don't even follow the rules truthfully. He basically sums up the fact that equality needs to be in order to have peace through out the country. He gives examples such as giving them the right to vote, and end discrimination. He says that both Americans as well as African Americans have to work together to make progress.
ReplyDeleteWhen we allow freedom to ring-when we let it ring from every city 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, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last." The whole last passage stood out to me. For even though he gave this incredible speech and even gave his life for what he truly believed in, the world hasn't really changed. His efforts did an unspeakable amount of good, but it still falls on deaf ears. Even today, 50 years after this speech, this attempt to unite the human race as a whole, hate is still bred pointlessly throughout the population. I fear that due to the blind hatred that people have, in misunderstanding and irrational fear, Dr. Kings' dream will stay forever that, a dream, and that is an atrocity all in itself.
ReplyDeletethe line that stood out to me the most is when MLK begins with "today i am happy to join you in what will go down is history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in our nation" i find this to be really powerful and completely true, but i dont think MLK knew how much his speech would inspire people even 40 years later. this speech was very inspirational then, and still is today
ReplyDeleteAs I read this speech, there were several quotes that I found empowering and momentous but one passage, stuck out more than the rest. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream.... I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with his vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." Back in 1963, Alabama's Governor physically stood in front of the school doors of the University of Alabama and an Elementary school in Huntsville to stop school integration. It's sickening to me, that a man of that status would stop four innocent, harmless children, from receiving an education in the land of the "free". Thankfully, shortly after, President Lyndon B. Johnson told the nation, if you want to continue to receive federal funds for your school, then you will integrate them. MLK vividly paints the picture of the pain, struggles, and inequality felt throughout the nation by many citizens.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to choose just one piece of this speech to focus upon as it is so well written with its bountiful figurative language. Martin Luther King Jr's background of a preacher truly helped the eloquence of his speech, but the part that sounds out to me the most is the parallel structure through out the second paragraph. It truly helps drive home the fact that even though, African American's have had freedom for one hundred years they are no closer equals to their white counter parts.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite quote from his speech was "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood". I really liked this because it is very powerful and it tells us that all people should be treated equally, like a brotherhood. People responded to this speech for many years and it really shows how much we do care and we do believe in "brotherhood".
ReplyDeleteI really appriciate the figurative language used in the first paragraph when refering to Aberaham Lincoln as a "Symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation" and when referencing the Emancipation Proclamation such as "This momentous deoree is a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves" these are just a couple of examples of the beautiful writing of Martin Luther King Jr's most famous speech in which he also uses some dialogue such as from the famous song My land tis of thee "'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 mountain side,Let freedom ring!'"
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the speech is the metaphors that he uses to describe injustice. Mainly the metaphors he uses to describe Mississippi. "I have a dream that one day even the state of
ReplyDeleteMississippi, a state sweltering with the Heat of injustice,sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."
This is a very powerful speech. I could notice that it is filled with figurative language. I believe Dr. King did this not only to shed light on specific ordeals that African-Americans were facing but to also connect it with things that other non African-Americans can relate to. An example would be when he says "America has given the negro people a bad check, a check which has come backed marked 'insufficient funds'". Dr. King also uses very powerful words with both negative and positive connotations. I would like to point out some of his diction -- which is fantastic -- hollowed, sweltering, nullification, it seems that there is diction in every sentence that this great man has spoken.
ReplyDeleteI like in his speech how he has many connections back to the bible and Jesus. He is knowledgeable on this because he is a minister, but he probably did this because its a way for them all to connect. He is not just connecting all the African Americans but also all of the African Americans to the white people. A quote that shows this is "Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of
ReplyDeleteGod's children." This shows how he wanted everyone to feel connected through the medium of religion, and hoping that the government will see the error in their way.
I found it interesting that he included a lot of religion in his speech. This could have been because he was a minister or because he wanted to appeal to the general public and connect them. He focused on this idea specifically towards the end when he said "When we allow freedom to ring-when we let it ring from every city 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, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last." I think that ending his speech with these words created a good lasting impact on the audience.
ReplyDelete