The March on Washington: The Martin Luther King Jr. speech “I Have a Dream”

A Rhetorical Situation is a linear event that changes over time due to the increases of discourse involving new views and perceptions from the audience (Bitzer). An easier way to understand rhetoric is the ability to influence or change another’s beliefs (Bitzer). Through a media artifact, most commonly known as Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “I Have a Dream”, the rhetorical situation can be clearly explained and seen throughout the events of this era. 

Photo is from: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/i-have-a-dream-speech.

First let’s review the leading events to give some background information of the “I Have a Dream” speech. In the 1950s, there was an increasing rise of racial discrimination and segregation against African Americans which led to the rise of Martin Luther King Jr.’s increasing popularity (Onion et al.). Since Dr King was “a young Baptist minister,” at this time he became very popular for his ability to “weave in references to the country’s Founding Fathers and the Bible. King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality.” (Onion et al.). 

In the early 1960s, there were several movements that tried to draw attention to the mistreatment of African Americans. A couple of these movements were the Freedom Rides and the Birmingham Campaign (Onion et al.). The Freedom rides happened in 1961 which “resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but eventually led to the ending of the practice of segregation on buses and in stations.” (Onion et al.). In 1963, the Birmingham Campaign was a “challenge the Alabama city’s segregation policies.” This is one of the more famous protests with the images of demonstrators being blown away by hoses and run down by police dogs (Onion et al.). These movements lead to the March on Washington where Dr King’s speech “I Have a Dream” is the highlight of its accomplishments. The March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin who correlated with the “‘Big Six’ civil rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Whitney Young of the National Urban League, James Farmer of the Congress on Racial Equality, and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.” (Onion et al.). 

The mile-long march was to start from the “Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation”. The Emancipation Proclamation was a decree stating freedom for the enslaved people within the Union (Onion et al.). The goals of the march were demands for desegregated public accommodations and schools (Onion et al.). The organizers of the march were surprised by the volume of supporters who showed up with over 250,000 people showing support for the event (Onion et al.). 

The origin of the speech was not created until the night before the day of the march (Onion et al.). Unlike the other speakers that day such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and a gospel favorite Mahalia Jackson, Dr King didn’t even have a draft done until midnight (Onion et al.). Although the name of his speech “I Have a Dream” is the thing people remembered about the speech the most, it was never pre-planned or written (Onion et al.). 

The chronological series of events allowed Martin Luther King Jr. to assess the situation and address its needs. The framework gathered by the background creates an atmosphere of imagery. The atmosphere of hostility faced with a beacon of hope from an opposing will of the citizens of America. Through the united actions taken by individuals who hoped to create a better nation for their kids, so that one day all people regardless of their race, gender, and beliefs could live equally amongst each other. 

Now that the background has been laid out, the situation of this media artifact can be fully analyzed. Let’s begin with exigence. Bitzer describes exigence as “functions as the organizing principle; it specifies the audience to be addressed and the change to be effected” (Bitzer). Bitzer continues to explain that exigence “can only be modified through discourse” which allows more information to influence the audience into a positive view (Bitzer). The discourse is described to mean the input added to a discussion or disagreements to add a new point of view to make the audience think about their viewpoint on the talked about subject. Within the media artifact “I Have a Dream ”, the exigence is to end the social segregation that is causing a schism between the men and women of the U.S. over racial disputes. In the transcript of the speech, the exigence is expressed as an acknowledgement towards the Emancipation Proclamation as a “momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions” (Read). This is showing the ambition of the need for an equal world where race, gender, and religion doesn’t matter only the character of the person. The principle of the call to action is to show the people of America that it is possible for all of us to live equally and that we should not discriminate against each other because of physical features, but by the judgment of character a person has.

Secondly is the audience of a rhetorical situation. Bitzer describes the audience as those who are capable of being influenced by discourse based on the activities of decision and action (Bitzer). In other cases, Bitzer describes a person who “engages himself or ideal mind as an audience.” (Bitzer). In the March of Washington, the audience consisted of many ethnicities, high and low ranking officials, and people who wanted change (Onion et al.). In this case the audience is a key factor to the success of Dr King’s speech. The audience depending on who it is can either empower the event or spoil. Imagine if the 250,000 people who showed up to the event were all racists who hated African Americans; it would have been a disaster leading to most likely another civil war. During Dr King’s speech, there was an individual next to him named Mahalia Jackson who “implored him to ‘Tell ‘em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin.” which led to the famous “I Have a Dream” conclusion heard around the country (Onion et al.). Dr King expressed his dreams for his kids, the country, and freedom (Onion et al.). Since Dr King’s audience was so engaged he was able to improvise one of the most iconic phrases in history. The success of Dr King’s ability to attain the audiences’ attention over the time of the speech allowed the fated interaction between Dr King and Mahalia Jackson. Without Mahalia Jackson the “I Have a Dream” speech would most likely be known as the “Free at Last” speech (Onion et al.).

Lastly is the constraints of a rhetorical situation. Bitzer states that “constraints are made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation” (Bitzer). These factors are the controlling strings of a rhetorical situation (Bitzer). Constraints are simplified even further into two different categories (Bitzer). The first is artistic proofs. These are the devices of ethos, pathos, and logos (Learning). Ethos is the speaker’s character to determine if the speaker is trustworthy with evidence of good moral character (Learning). Pathos is “the emotions the speaker is able to appeal and awaken in their audience” (Learning). Logos is “the use of reasoning through logical arguments” (Learning). The second is inartistic proofs. These are “like physical resources the speaker has access to” (Learning). To simplify this a physical resource is like the draft Dr King created the night before the March on Washington. Another example is imagine you are giving a presentation in class with a slide show and a note card. The inartistic proofs you currently have are the note card and slide show for a reference. While looking at Dr King’s transcript and audio, it was clear that through a defining background and a call to action with reason the rhetorical situation conditions have been met (Read). With Dr King’s preparations before the day of the march, he only had a brief rough draft of writing that didn’t include his most memorable moments (Onion et al.). 

In conclusion, through the background of the March of Washington, the linear events that caused many to begin to see hope for equality was fully realized by “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. By using rhetorical situation analysis, we can see the conditions of exigence, audience, and constraints of what makes it rhetorical. The conditions are a framework to help navigate the speaker and listener with an open mind to form an opinion.

Works Cited

Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation Lloyd F. Bitzer, http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/309CWeb/Bitzer(1968).pdf. Accessed 6 Apr. 2024. 

Learning, Lumen. “Public Speaking.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-publicspeaking/chapter/introduction-to-ethos-logos-and-pathos/#:~:text=For%20Aristotle%2C%20there%20were%20two,are%20created%20by%20the%20speaker. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024. 

“Read Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech in Its Entirety.” NPR, NPR, 16 Jan. 2023, http://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety. 

Sullivan, Missy, and Matt Mullen. “MLK’s I Have a Dream Speech Video & Text.” Edited by Amanda Onion, History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 30 Nov. 2017, http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/i-have-a-dream-speech.