Anglophoneworlds.pdf

UNED Madrid
Sede Gregorio Marañón
ANGLOPHONE WORLDS FROM A
HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Anglophone Worlds from a Historical and Cultural Perspective | Slide # 2
© UNED
May 10 (2022/23)
UNIT 6: Historical Text
#6

© UNED
▪ Martin Luther King. “I have a dream” (1963)
Contents

© UNED
Introduction
The information in this introduction is NOT part of the text commentary.
It is only provided to help you understand the historical document.
You are recommended to do research on the context and the text before discussing a historical text, but this
preliminary research is not part of your text commentary.

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Contents
▪ Early 1960s America
▪ Civil Rights Movement and the March on
Washington
▪ Martin Luther King
▪ “I have a dream”
Introduction

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Early 1960s America
▪ The 1960s started off as the dawn of a golden age to
most Americans. On January 20, 1961, the
handsome and charismatic John F. Kennedy
became president of the United States.
▪ His confidence that, as one historian put it, “the
government possessed big answers to big problems”
seemed to set the tone for the rest of the decade.
▪ However, that golden age never materialized. On the
contrary, by the end of the 1960s, it seemed that the
nation was falling apart.
Introduction
(Source: https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/1960s-history)

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Early 1960s America
▪ During his presidential campaign in 1960, John F.
Kennedy had promised the most ambitious domestic
agenda since the New Deal: the “New Frontier,” a
package of laws and reforms that sought to eliminate
injustice and inequality in the United States.
▪ John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address reflected his
confidence that his administration would chart a
historically significant course in both domestic policy and
foreign affairs.
▪ The contrast between this optimistic vision and the
pressures of managing daily political realities at home
and abroad would be one of the main tensions running
through the years of his administration (e.g., Vietnam
War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and racial tensions.)
Introduction
(Source: https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/1960s-history)

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Civil Rights Movement and the March on
Washington
▪ Martin Luther King, Jr., a young Baptist minister, rose
to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of
the civil rights movement and president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC).
▪ By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen
gains made through organized campaigns that
placed its participants in dangerous situations but
also gathered attention for their plight.
▪ One such campaign, the 1961 Freedom Rides,
resulted in vicious beatings for many participants, but
led to the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling
that ended the practice of segregation on buses and
in stations.
Introduction
(Source: www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/i-have-a-dream-speech)

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Washington
▪ Similarly, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963,
designed to challenge the Alabama city’s
segregationist policies, produced the searing images
of demonstrators being beaten, attacked by dogs
and blasted with high-powered water hoses.
▪ Around the time MLK wrote his famed “Letter from
Birmingham Jail,” King decided to move forward with
the idea for another event coordinated with Negro
American Labor Council (NACL).
Introduction

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Washington
▪ Thanks to the efforts of prominent Civil right activists,
the logistics of the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom came together by the summer of 1963.
▪ Scheduled for August 28, the event was to consist of
a mile-long march from the Washington Monument
to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the president
who had signed the Emancipation Proclamation a
century earlier and would feature a series of
prominent speakers.
▪ Its stated goals included demands for desegregated
public accommodations and public schools, redress
of violations of constitutional rights and an expansive
federal works program to train employees.
Introduction

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Washington
▪ The March on Washington produced a bigger turnout
than expected, as an estimated 250,000 people
arrived to participate in what was then the largest
gathering for an event in the history of the nation’s
capital.
▪ Along with notable speeches by Randolph and
Lewis, the audience was treated to performances by
folk luminaries Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and gospel
favorite Mahalia Jackson.
Introduction

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Martin Luther King
▪ Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist and
Baptist minister who played a key role in the
American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s
until his assassination in 1968.
▪ King sought equality and human rights for African
Americans, the economically disadvantaged and all
victims of injustice through peaceful protest.
▪ He was the driving force behind watershed events
such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the
Birmingham campaign and the 1963 March on
Washington, which helped bring about such
landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the
Voting Rights Act.
Introduction
(Source: www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr)

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Martin Luther King
▪ King’s philosophy of nonviolence was put to test during the
Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a
boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair
hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s
most racially divided cities.
▪ Arrested for his involvement on the Birmingham
campaign, King penned the civil rights manifesto known
as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent defense
of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white
clergymen who had criticized his tactics.
▪ King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is
remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a
U.S. federal holiday since 1986.
Introduction
(Source: www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr)

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The Speech: “I have a dream”
▪ The March on Washington culminated in King’s most
famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream”
speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that
many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.
▪ Unlike his fellow speakers, King didn’t have the text
ready for advance distribution by August 27. He
didn’t even sit down to write the speech until after
arriving at his hotel room. The final section of his
eloquent and iconic speech is indeed believed to
have been largely improvised.
Introduction

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▪ King began his speech slowly but soon showed his
gift for weaving recognizable references to the Bible,
the U.S. Constitution and other universal themes into
his oratory.
▪ Pointing out how the country’s founders had signed a
“promissory note” that offered great freedom and
opportunity, King noted that “Instead of honoring this
sacred obligation, America has given the Negro
people [...] a check which has come back marked
‘insufficient funds.’”
▪ King nevertheless maintained a positive, uplifting
tone, imploring the audience to go back home
“knowing that somehow this situation can and will be
changed.”
Introduction

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▪ Around the halfway point of the speech, Mahalia Jackson
implored him to “Tell ’em about the ‘Dream,’ Martin.” Whether or
not King consciously heard, he soon moved away from his
prepared text [the “I have a dream” segment did not appear in his
original written text.]
▪ Repeating the mantra, “I have a dream,” he offered up hope to
“one day live in a nation where they [brothers] will not be judged
by the color of their skin” and the desire to “transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
▪ “And when this happens,” he added, “Black men and white men,
Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Introduction

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Steps
Follow these steps, please:
▪ Reading
▪ Classification of the text
▪ Nature of the text
▪ Location
▪ Author
▪ Addressee
▪ Analysis of the text
▪ Conclusions drawn from the analysis
▪ Personal assessment of the historical text
Martin Luther King. “I have a dream” (1963)

© UNED
Step 1: Reading
▪ Read the text carefully several times (at least three
times)
▪ Look up at a dictionary all the words/expressions
you don’t really understand.
▪ Underline or highlight the most important sentences.
▪ Review any concept that it is not clear to you
(Wikipedia, atlases, etc.)
▪ Reread the text as many times as necessary.
You can download (and listen to) the speech here:
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/eleanorr
ooseveltdeclarationhumanrights.htm

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Step 2: Classification of the text
▪ Nature of the text → legal (law, bill, constitution, ...), journalistic (article, interview, ...), political (speech,
declaration), documental (census, property register, ...), historiographic (written after something happened),
literary (memoirs, letters,... ), etc.
▪ Location → (1) place and time; (2) description of the historical context
▪ Author → (1) name of the author[s], (2) information on the author[s], (3) is the author different than the person
signing it?
▪ Addressee → who is the addressee? Information about the addressee

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Step 3: Analysis of the text
▪ Explain in a simple way the content of the
document: What is it about? What does it say?
▪ Distinguish between main and secondary ideas.
▪ Don’t forget both, explicit and implicit aspects.
You can describe the ideas in the text:
▪ in the order that they are exposed, paragraph by
paragraph,
▪ or thematically (by themes).

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Step 4: Conclusion
▪ Historical value of the text.
▪ What does it teach us about a particular historical
place and time?
▪ The rhetorical effects of the text.
▪ ...

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Step 5: Personal assessment of the historical
text
▪ What’s your personal assessment of the text?
▪ Do you think this declaration made a difference in
American history?
▪ Do you think the ideas on the text are still relevant?
Why?
▪ ...

Commentary of Literary Texts in English | Slide # 23
© UNED
Next week...
✓ Analyze the
remaining
historical texts at
home: Robert F.
Kennedy’s “On the
Assassination of
MLK” (1968) and
Barack H. Obama’s
“Inaugural
Address” (2009)

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