Here is the answer and explanation to the question In the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the intended audience and how do they affect the writing?
In the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the intended audience and how do they affect the writing?
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In his “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King navigates the tricky task of addressing both white and black audiences. To achieve this, the speech has a tripartite structure. The first part of the speech is addressed to whites. We know this because he repeatedly refers to the “Negro,” as if that group is apart from the group to whom he is speaking, saying, for example:
Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
The second part, beginning with “there is something that I must say to my people . . .” is addressed to blacks. For example, using the “we” pronoun to express solidarity, he states
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
The third and final part is addressed to blacks and whites together and is a call for unity. It begins when King starts to talk to his “friends” (black and white) about his dream, continually repeating his refrain “I have a dream.”
King knows he must appeal to whites in the United States, because they are the majority of the population and hold the preponderance of power. He knows he must project strength and signal that the civil rights movement has no intention of backing down. He also knows he has reaffirm to blacks the nonviolent principles of the struggle, which is also a way to reassure whites of blacks’ good intention. Finally, he wants to pull the crowd he is addressing, both black and white, together in unity, which is why he ends on a crescendo of stirring notes.
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The intended audience for Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” was moderate or liberal white people who he hoped to win over with his call for racial equality. Though both African Americans and whites were present at the march and heard his words in the media, he had to convince whites of the urgency to act to protect African Americans’ civil rights.
King uses the word “we” to refer to African Americans. For example, he writes, “We’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check,” by which he means that African Americans are marching on Washington to ask for the equality promised in the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. He speaks for African Americans as a whole and for their desire for equal rights that have long been denied to them.
King appeals to white moderates who might feel that a more gradual approach to racial equality is in order. For example, he writes about “the fierce urgency of now.” He wants to persuade white people that now is the time to act and to pass federal laws to guarantee voting and other civil rights for African Americans.
He also persuades his audience that his movement will act with “dignity and discipline,” assuaging the fears of whites that the Civil Rights movement would turn violent. However, he states that if African Americans are not granted rights, America will not be tranquil. These types of statements are designed to appeal to whites who want an end to racial violence. At the end of the speech, he uses the image of black and white children holding hands as a way to capture a sense of innocence. It is an appeal to whites who want their children to live in a better world.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the leaders of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which drew 200,000 participants of all races. At that time, the gathering was the largest crowd ever assembled in Washington, D.C. Politicians, pastors, entertainers, civil rights leaders, and people from around the country attended the organized day-long rally and made up the audience for King’s speech. The crowd included both blacks and whites, mostly those who were sympathetic to the civil rights movement. However, King certainly realized that his speech would be circulated widely after the event through television and print media, so his broader audience was the country as a whole.
The fact that his audience included not only blacks, who were the targets of racial discrimination, but also whites, affected the content of King’s speech. In the beginning of his speech, he understandably draws in the black members of his audience first. He points out how “America has given the Negro a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds,’” showing how the demands of the blacks were just. He specifically addresses people of his own race when he says
“there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.”
He calls on blacks to reject violence and to resist the temptation to distrust whites. He encourages them not to be satisfied and not to give up until their dreams are realized.
Next, he transitions his remarks to include whites as well as blacks. He makes this transition by asserting that his dream is rooted in the American Dream, something that all races aspire to. When he refers to his four little children, he transcends race, since the dreams parents have for their children are the same for people of any color. He speaks of “all God’s children” and looks forward to a time when
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“little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.”
In the final paragraph, he envisions the day when “black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing.”
Having an audience of both blacks and whites affected King’s speech by making it inclusive and broad in scope rather than a speech that would narrowly address blacks. Because people from all races were listening and would be listening, King strove for a unifying tone in his address.
Further Reading
- https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-was…
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