Stride for Civil Rights
One prevalent social movement of the 20th century was the Civil rights movement, which revolved around achieving equal rights for African Americans. After the end of slavery resulting from the Civil War and the unsuccessful results of reconstruction, the African American population of the United States remained under a continuous strain of oppression. The objective of the movement in the 50s and 60s was against the segregation that occurred in schools, voting, and all aspects of ordinary American life; this period was already a volatile period of American history with the Vietnam War and the peak of the Cold War, which only made the struggle for racial justice and equality all that more difficult. Momentous leaders of this movement who stood as the pillars of rhetorical action who fought for this very purpose are Martin Luther King Jr., who chose the peaceful route, and Malcolm X, who chose the violent one. Throughout this movement, countless examples of rhetoric were demonstrated and aligned in correlation to such rhetorics as ethos and pathos such as the infamous speeches, the documents associated with the event, and the many signs upheld at peaceful and nonpeaceful protests, displaying civil disobedience of refusing to obey a regulation or power unjust in a peaceful manner exhibiting a form of resistance without the actual use of violence. These examples of rhetoric are deeply intriguing because they often compounded on each other and concretely supported each other.
The first example of rhetoric of this movement is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, a speech that is abundant with rhetorical devices and appeals. It was given on August 28th, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, which delivered Reverend MLK Jr’s message to not only the mainly African American gathering that attended the speech but to America as a whole. The message was that the United States had defaulted upon its promise of equal freedom and justice for all: yet through peaceful protest and steadfast commitment, America remained capable of honoring this pledge. Portions of the speech speak to Junior’s magnificent dream that “one day this nation will rise and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” (“I Have A Dream”; MLK Jr.). Or his dream that “one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (“I Have A Dream”; MLK Jr.). Both of these examples develop a potent appeal to ethos by MLK as he first refers to the nation’s creed found in the Declaration of Independence, thus appealing to the ethically based connotation of such a phrase. Then in the second, above-mentioned line, he speaks about how when all the metaphorical wrongs are corrected, they will reveal the Lord’s glory, which especially appeals to ethos as MLK is a reverend and highly acclaimed member of the clergy, and his words about God greatly appeal to people’s ethical sense. MLK being well versed in mastering the art of the rhetorical use of ethos having directed attention to take into account the main speaker’s trustworthiness and accountability, in the long run, relating to when his well-known speech (“I Have A Dream”; MLK Jr.) through resonating more sincerely with his viewers, he implies that he is in the same orchestra within his metaphor when it comes to his morals, and socially-accepted within his behavioral principles indicated through his tone. He also illustrates his credibility by painting how his reputation ethically and morally never really lessened or declined as he kept up to date with the clergy and conducted what he self-preached encouraging civil disobedience and non-violence as one of his primary tactics moreover to show how refusal to retaliate to violent outrages is not a mindset of weakness but a way of courage demonstrating to his audience supplementally more care to an issue before presenting his demurral when it comes to discrimination and segregation. MLK using the skillful technique of ethos, also insinuated how barbaric responses and reactions would be considered ethically uncivilized manner despite being challenged with a primitive law that’s unsuited for a way to continue life.
MLK also said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down 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. I have a dream today.” (“I Have A Dream”; MLK Jr.). MLK’s somber use of repetition coupled with his optimistic mention of children severely appeals to pathos because it targets people’s emotional perception of their children and their futures. These lines also worked in MLK’s favor in unifying the audience, which consisted of both mentioned races. MLK uses pathos through his deliberate word choice of how many African Americans have confronted and been conflicted with discrimination and as well as segregation, due to the color of their skin forsaking and abandoning, and nevertheless dispositioning the role meant for them in their community and of their actual well being in a society like how it was, appealing through his meaningful terminology and expression of persistence of how it might also just possibly be like for his four children growing and developing to learn in an environment of eradicated law and order. When observing the speech from the perspective of Cicero’s canons of literature we see that the way MLK took the arrangement canon of rhetoric, he placed more logical and introductory information of the dilemma at the start, yet a more heartfelt and emotional rhetorical canon of style to strengthen his rhetorical canon of delivery. MLK achieved that goal perfectly. Every rhetorical choice within the speech demonstrates how it is a flawless attempt at portraying the message it intended to and helped thrust forward the Civil Rights movement.
Another example of rhetoric in this movement is a poster called, “Only You Can Prevent Ghetto Fires by Ron Cobb in 1967, (https://posterhouse.org/blog/a-century-of-posters-protesting-violence-against-black-americans/
5th image). This poster was created during a group of riots and was intended to rile up moderate African Americans who weren’t as vocal about police brutality. The speaker here is a prominent American-Australian political cartoonist who is strongly aligned with the movement, and his main message for his audience of moderate African Americans is that they are submitting to a system that cares little for them and that they need to speak up. This poster speaks to ethos and pathos, ethos is demonstrated by how Smokey the Bear is replaced by Uncle Tom who is known to be an African American character who just submits to his white slave owners. This is henceforth, capitalized as the poster illuminates to the viewer through its structured intentional setup the natural way of life for the average enslaved African American under the law to a white person involuntarily being obligated to oblige to a certain ethic tolerance enduring a lifestyle not solely just morally undeserved and signifying unfair prejudice but loutishly coarse to untie from. This political cartoonist also intertwined the inveterate use of Pathos with how it instigates feelings of anger through injustice and incorporating inequality as a whole, and the recurring stumbling block of an everlasting cycle encompassing the foremost example of being forced typically as an African American acceding to yield what was required of their duties to not eventuate to worsened conditions. This compels the viewer to coax to the standpoint that any common enslaved person depicted by Smokey the Bear had been also replaced with no other than Uncle Tom, and without seizing committing to a white slave owner without an accord. This may seed an emotion of anger and dismay of the appeal of adversaries remaining to continue following a disheartening notion of insensitivity and strife to fight against a hostile situation, leading to its unfair bias of life due to a system with no impartiality of equity providing throughout his political cartoon as a reference of the American-Australian political cartoonist viewers the normality of the circumstances as it seems to accuse moderates of submitting to the same system, forcing them to face the hardships of the ghettos that still yet to constrain and be administered daily. The use of the Smokey the Bear format is effective because it acts as a metaphor implying the urgency of hardship, and the use of Uncle Tom is extremely crucial as it brings up an infamously insulting term for those found to be accepting of inequality. Thus, both of those rhetorical choices most definitely support each other to strengthen the point that the speaker is trying to make.
