Here King was reaching out to several audiences: Those steeped in a life of segregation, black militants champing at the bit of nonviolence, white supporters of civil rights, Kennedy officials watching in the White House and a national TV audience. King focused on the past and present. He relied on reason and history. His paragraphs and sentences were long. The imagery was clear, but a bit forced. King seemed to be straining for effect.

Near the end of his prepared remarks, King evoked the call of Amos 5:24: “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Buoyed by the emotional reaction of the crowd, he departed from his text. He told his followers not to wallow in despair. Then he evoked the American dream. It was not a dream of material wealth, but of racial harmony. A harmony in which black and white alike were judged on character, not on color of skin. A harmony in which they lived peacefully together in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and a harmony in which all were finally free and equal. King closed on a classic American note: freedom. But here he went beyond the usual notions of being liberated: enjoying liberty of choice and governing oneself responsibly. His notion of freedom was deep and biblical: delivery into a new birth of freedom and justice and deliverance into the promised land of brotherhood.

Here King was speaking ultimately to God (“thank God Almighty”). He was focusing on the future. He relied on emotion and imagination. His images were personal and geographical, clear and passionate. His cadence slowed, becoming more rhythmic. Sentences and paragraphs were short. Language, emotion and delivery were as natural as grass. The peroration was a prose poem.

Although King had gone seven minutes over his allotted time, no one said that the speech lacked unity. What unified the two speeches? King’s vision and rhetoric.

King’s vision was complex and multidimensional. Like Lincoln, King was well aware of the trinity of time. Vision includes the legacy of the past, the needs of the present and the promise of a better future. People of vision walk one step ahead of others but another in step with their followers. Vision includes the head but also the heart, soul, will and imagination. Like good advice, vision is the right word at the right time. King’s vision was Afro-American and biblical. Deliverance into God’s beloved community was the ultimate goal. Amos 5 was an important textual source and the cadence with which King spoke was biblical.

An eloquent public speaker, King recognized the power of words. He knew that parallelism is probably the most effective technique in public speaking. A familiar biblical pattern, parallelism is keeping on the same grammatical track but varying the text (e. g., “I came, I saw, I conquered”). On several occasions, King repeated the grammatical patterns but changed the wording: “Now is the time … We can never be satisfied … I have a dream … Let freedom ring.” Here form matched content. In rhetoric, grammatical unity plus variety in wording equals harmony. In content, justice plus freedom equals racial harmony.

As a man of conscience, King recognized the racial and economic injustices that called for change. As a man of history, King knew that the theme of freedom would resonate with Americans. As a minister of the word of God, King drew from the biblical well of brotherhood. As an orator Aug. 28, 1963, King fused all three roles and three themes. Ralph Abernathy was right: At that moment, the spirit of God took hold of King and guided him aright.

Ron Dorr

James Madison college professor