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Rhetorical Analysis Of We Shall Overcome

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Speech Analysis Rough Draft: “We Shall Overcome”
In early March of 1965, civil rights voting marches in Selma, Alabama went from a silent protests to violent assaults and beating by police officials. The goal of the march was to focus on allowing voting registration for blacks in the South because whites were preventing the rights of the American people by creating impossible tests for minorities to take in order to vote. After a week passed on March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke out in response to the Selma-to-Alabama March. His purpose was to unite the American people in the task to get equal voting rights for all races-- according to the Constitution. He is addressing his ideas to Congress, but he intends to convince the citizens …show more content…
The title of President Johnson’s speech, “We Shall Overcome,” comes from a mix of songs created into the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. He used this phrase from the song because he wanted “to make clear his beliefs” of the enemies: “poverty, disease, and ignorance” that “we shall overcome” (John F. Kennedy Center; Johnson). He used strong modes of persuasion, to inspire the normal citizen and to declare his submission for another bill to Congress. President Johnson used three forms of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos to drive his speech into a convincing cause that would persuade America to become truly equal.
President Johnson’s speech contains the element of pathos to appeal to the senses of the American people for sympathy and unification. Beginning with the title of the speech, “We Shall Overcome,” Johnson chose this phrase because it emphasizes that he too is apart of the American peoples who are in need. He is putting himself with the commons, but still establishes that he will be helpful in the “[overcoming].” Johnson starts his speech off with describing the events that occurred in Selma using words “brutally assaulted” and “a man of God--was killed.” This diction is used because it implies that the events that have occurred are gruesome and killed

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