OA – In the great speeches in history, why do speakers use imagery? 21.2 notes March on Washington Voting Rights

Marching to Washington Prior to Kennedy’s death in fall of 1963, he sent a civil rights bill to Congress Equal access to all public accomodations Gives attorney general power to file school desegregation suits Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized a march on Washington to rally support for the bill 250,000 people marched on the nation’s capital Speakers demanded immediate passage of the civil rights bill Two weeks after the historic speech, four young Birmingham girls were killed when a bomb was thrown through their church window basement

Civil Rights Act of 1964 President Johnson would sign Kennedy’s original bill into law in July of 1964 Prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender

Fighting for Voting Rights Project Freedom Summer Registering as many African American voters as they could College students, trained in nonviolent resistance Thousands volunteered; mostly white – one third female went into Mississippi to help register voters Dangerous work; some met beatings, violence, even death

Selma Campaign Major voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama SNCC had worked for two years registering voters By 1965 had registered 2,000 voters Demonstrator was kill; Martin Luther King announced 50 mile protest march from Selma to Montgomery 600 protesters began; first night violence broke out; police used whips, clubs, tear gas on marchers This episode only strengthened the march – 25,000 would march to Montgomery with federal protection

Please answer the following questions regarding MLK’s – “I have a Dream” speech Identify and write down at least five examples of imagery that appear in the speech. With each example, what is Dr. King trying to explain? You should have an answer for each of the five examples. Do you think that Dr. King’s speech still has important significance today? Why or why not? Can you think of any other writing or any other speech that is just as powerful today as this speech was over 30 years ago? Explain your answer.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Eliminated literacy tests Voters who had been denied suffrage could be registered Percentage of voters rose from 10 percent in 1964 to 60 percent in 1968 (the percentage in the South tripled) Social and economic inequalities created years prior continued to exist