Martin Luter King

« Martin Luther King Introduction I will present this document by linking it to our “Masters of Speech” axis.

First I will describe it, then I will analyse the different parts of it to understand how this document illustrate our axis.

I will play the detective to understand better this picture and to retrace its history. Description This document is a picture.

It shows a black man, waving to a crowd of people from the steps.

These people are standing in what looks like a long square with an obelisk at the back, and trees on the sides.

We can see that they are carrying placards: on one of them is written the word “March”.

The black man appears to be smiling and he is photographed by another journalist.

Also, he is well dressed, wearing a suit.

And we can also see that he is holding a small sheet of paper in his left hand. The place: the Lincoln Memorial Now let’s analyze this picture.

First, the place is symbolic.

Indeed, this long square with an obelisk at the back, and trees on the sides is in reality the Mall of Washington DC.

This park relate the Capitol, where American laws are passed, to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, via the Washington Monument, the obelisk that we can see at the background of the picture.

So this picture was taken from the Lincoln Memorial. Let's take a look at the life of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 into a poor family but managed, as a self-made man, to become President of the USA from 1861 to 1865, when he was killed.

But why he was killed ? Abraham Lincoln was killed in the Secession War context.

This war pitted the South, whose economy was based on slavery, against the North, which wanted to abolish slavery.

The end of the conflict was due to the victory of the North: Abraham Lincoln, then president of the United States, passed a thirteenth amendment to the Constitution to abolish slavery. So we understand that the event is linked to Lincoln and therefore perhaps to slavery. The people Martin Luther King 1 Now let's take a look at the.... »