Greatest Speech of All Time?

Perusing Craig Senior's excellent blog on presentation and public speaking, I found this video.

Often referred to as one of the greatest speeches of all time, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is remarkable in many respects.  King was a master of speech and the classic art of rhetoric.

Here are a few of the speech's many outstanding elements:
A) Research
It was well-researched with references to the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence.

B) A compelling opening
He opens with, "Five score years ago" - a direct reference to The Gettysburg Address.

B) Repetition of themes
The repetition of a series of themes:
1) "Now is the time"
2) "When will you be satisfied?"
3) Finally, "I have a dream"

C) Powerful use of poetic metaphor
1) "But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice."
2) "we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
3) "The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."
4) "the red hills of Georgia" hints at blood, pain and sacrifice.
5) "Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression"

D) Use of alliteration
Which is the repetition of consonants.
1) "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.  We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence …"
2) "…they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." (Say it aloud and enjoy the strong percussive sound of the Cs.)
3) "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.'"

E) Passionate non-verbal delivery
The energetic, passionate and rhythmic, musical quality of his delivery building to a powerful concluding crescendo.  This provides a moving and satisfying emotional drive to the speech.

F) A powerful conclusion
"When we allow freedom to 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!"

There is a terrific analysis of the speech here.

 

[Rhetoric] is “that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end. The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will.” — George Campbell