What persuasive techniques are used in Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech?

Martin Luther
Kings I Have a Dream speech is one of the most often studied, cited, and referenced speeches
in American history. While its true that some of its appeal is derived from the context of its
creation and delivery (the 1963 civil rights watershed moment called the March on Washington),
its power is chiefly due to the effective use of the persuasive and rhetorical techniques that
we all studied in high school.

In reading the text of Kings speech, it doesnt
take long to uncover several of those techniques. Lets look at the second paragraph.

Technique: Transfer

Transfer is used to
link the speakers cause with something else, usually something that is well respected and
accepted. If it works, some of that respect and acceptance is transferred to the speakers
cause.

Five score years ago, href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln">a great American, in
whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents">Emancipation
Proclamation.

Listeners knew that King was
referring to Abraham Lincoln, a president who is now revered as possibly the greatest American
leader. By mentioning Lincoln, King sought to align the civil rights cause with Lincolns
reputation, which would give it a legitimacy that some Americans were not yet willing to
recognize. Respect and acceptance is transferred from Lincoln to the civil rights
movement.

Technique: Emotive words

Emotive words are words used to create an emotional response from the reader. This
usually involves taking a simple idea and phrasing it with words that will sway the readers
perception. The following line does this well.

This
momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope
to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of
withering injustice.

King could have
said this instead: The Emancipation Proclamation gave hope to enslaved
negroes. By using the italicized words, King elicits a stronger, emotion-based
response from the reader.

Persuasive Technique: Figurative
language (more specifically,and symbol).

The third and final
sentence of the paragraph is:

It came as a joyous daybreak
to end the long night of their captivity.

This persuasive
technique is also a common rhetorical device. We call it persuasive here because its function is
to convince listeners to agree with the speaker.

Speakers and writers create
metaphors and symbols to help define their ideas. By telling what something is by comparing it
to something else, they shape the listeners perception of their message. The words joyous
daybreak and long night are figurative terms, they are not literally true. The slaves did not
suffer for just one long night, it was really many thousands of nights. And their freedom wasnt
really a daybreak, it was a legal right conferred upon them. But by using these metaphors,
King imparts a greater emotional power to the idea that Lincoln freed the slaves from one kind
of tyranny, although, as evidenced by the marchers protests, not all kinds of tyranny.

Near the end of the speech, Kings tone changes a bit. He knows that many Americans are
not yet accepting of minorities as their equals.

Technique:
Fear

And there will be
neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship
rights.

The fear King is stoking here is the fear of
civil unrest. While he is not directly encouraging violent protest (in fact in directly argues
against it in a subsequent paragraph), he knows that many Americans have been dismayed by the
scenes they have witnessed on television, as protesters have been attacked and riots have
occurred. He is appealing to their fear of further violence and protest (note that the violence
was almost always committed by whites against the protesters, not the other way
around).

As you can see, there is a lot going on in this speech. King also
uses other techniques, such as repetition, parallel structure, , slogan, etc.

We should also note that this speech is exceptional because of Kings oratorical skills.
He can deliver a speech with charisma and power. If you havent actually seen and heard the
speech yourself, watch it on YouTube (or wherever). Theres no better speech anywhere.