Why Should Anyone Care About Your Speech?
Issue a Challenge or an Appeal
Objective: For this class period (50 minutes), the students will analyze a famous speech. The students will be expected to identify and give reasons for why or how the challenge was used in the speech. After this lesson, the students will be equipped with the tools they need to write or analyze an effective challenge in a given speech.
Materials: One copy of the sample speech and discussion questions for each student.
Steps:
1. Pass out sample speeches and discussion questions to the students.
2. Read the speech individually.
3. After everyone is finished reading, discuss the following questions as a class and be sure to enforce that everyone should write their answers on the sheet provided:
a) What was the context of this speech? What was going on during the time King delivered this speech?
b) What is the fundamental problem?
c) Describe the audience King is talking to.
d) Identify which audience King wishes to change.
(Note: King was talking to two kinds of groups. One group agreed that African Americans should be treated equally and one group disagreed with the implementation of equality).
e) Discuss how King addressed the values of each audience group.
f) What is King’s challenge or appeal? What is the expected outcome (desired action to be made by the audience) of his speech?
g) Is King’s challenge logical? Can this specific audience achieve it? How?
h) Think about and discuss other methods that King could have used to challenge the audience that would have been appropriate to the situational context of that time.
Results: Ultimately, the students will have an example of how one should analyze a speech in order to identify and critique a challenge or an appeal in a given speech. Additionally, they will know how to analyze different speeches and will know what process to go through in order to write a challenge in their own speech.
I See the Promised Land speech by Martin Luther King
Memphis – April 3rd 1968
I See the Promised Land speech by Martin Luther King
…And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and non-violence in this world; it’s non-violence or non-existence.
That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and in a hurry, to bring the coloured peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that he’s allowed me to be in Memphis.
I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn’t itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world.
And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.
Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favourite, favourite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we’ve got to keep attention on that. That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn’t get around to that.
Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: we know it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory…
…That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you…
Name________________________
Date_______________
Class_________________________
Discussion Questions that might help to develop or analyze the challenge or appeal in a speech:
Please provide your answers below.
1. What was the context of this speech? What was going on during the time King delivered this speech?
2. What is the fundamental problem?
3. Describe the audience King is talking to.
4. Identify which audience King wishes to change?
5. Discuss how King addressed the values of each audience group.
6. What is King’s challenge or appeal? What is the expected outcome (desired action to be made by the audience) of his speech?
7. Is King’s challenge logical? Can this specific audience achieve it? How?
8. Think about and discuss other methods that King could have used to challenge the audience that would be appropriate to the situational context of that time.
FOR THE TEACHER ONLY!!!!!!
A Rough Understanding for discussing the following questions.
i) What was the context of this speech? What was going on during the time King delivered this speech?
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered this speech during the Civil Rights Movement on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, TN. African Americans were not treated or viewed in the same ways by which the Declaration of Independence granted them. There were lots of riots, protests, and harsh feelings of racism going on in America at this time.
j) What is the fundamental problem?
The blacks felt that America has done them an injustice. The Declaration of Independence promised everyone, regardless of skin color, the right to same freedoms. The blacks were not granted the same privileges that the whites were. Thus, the blacks do not believe that they have earned their rights in God’s world.
k) Describe the audience King is talking to.
King presented his speech in front of a physical audience who saw him give the speech. His speech was mainly directed at the people who probably didn’t attend his speech, mainly the whites who were oppressing the blacks. His speech was also aimed at his fellow African Americans.
l) Identify which audience King wishes to change.
(Note: King was talking to two kinds of groups. One group agreed that African Americans should be treated equally and one group disagreed with the implementation of equality).
King’s speech was aimed at his fellow African Americans, but the whites were the people that needed to change their behavior in order to fix the problem. It was important that African Americans cooperated with King’s message about being determined to fight for justice and doing it non-violently, but they already agreed with King about the problem. King had to reach the white people who are oppressing the blacks so that a change can occur to stop the oppression and racism.
m) Discuss how King addressed the values of each audience group.
The whites believed in the “idea” of equality, but King described how some whites were not being fair and honest to the blacks. King gave plenty of examples of how the blacks were treated unjustly. King addressed the fact that the blacks were determined to be people and to live in God’s world. He also acknowledged how the blacks ought to avoid negativity and violence.
n) What is King’s challenge or appeal? What is the expected outcome (desired action to be made by the audience) of his speech?
King expects his audience (the whites) to be convinced that blacks were not being treated fairly. Once the whites understood that they were being unfair, King needed his audience to begin to treat the blacks as human beings.
o) Is King’s challenge logical? Can this specific audience achieve it? How?
Yes, King’s challenge is logical. King is not asking too much from his audience. He brought forth his arguments and tried to convince the whites that they were not being just to the blacks. The whites had the ability to change their attitude about blacks so that they could begin treating the blacks as human beings. King’s audience was fully able to achieve his goal. It was more about a conflict of interest. Did the whites want to change their attitudes and actions about the blacks?
p) Think about and discuss other methods that King could have used to challenge the audience that would have been appropriate to the situational context of that time.
Let the students brainstorm about other methods.
Carrie Miller
9/2/09