The Epic Speech of Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King had an entirely different strategy to Malcolm X or the Black Panthers. He begins his speech by saying that the it is 'the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation.' Note the use of the word OUR, many of the more radical black activists rejected America as being 'their' country, and simply viewed themselves as enslaved subjects of an enemy power. King wanted to associate his movement with the best traditions of liberal, democratic and above all Christian America. He wanted to appeal to white Americans and persuade them that to be American is to stand against tyranny, that the country was born in a struggle for freedom and had not so long ago fought Nazism.