Martin Luther King, Jr
“One hundred years later, the negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself on exile in his own land.”
He feels that even after one hundred years the Negro still has no rights and can’t be free in is his own home land. Martin Luther King Jr. has witnessed tyranny and oppression his entire life, and doesn’t want the future to continue to be the same.
During the time of segregation blacks did not have many rights. They had another set of rules to follow. Negros was not allowed to be with white people. They had to sit in the back of the bus while the whites got to sit in the front. Many times when the bus was full Negros had to give up there seats for the white people.
“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.”
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, it gave many Negro’s hope for a new beginning, a new start at life, and a chance to make something of them.
This part of the speech affected many because it was inspirational. His words gave them hope to believe they could make a difference. For years blacks felt they would never be considered equal human beings. However, the Emancipation Proclamation gave them hope that one day all Negro’s would have the opportunity to do everything a white person could do and more.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a mans sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.