A More Perfect Union Speech

“There is no noise as powerful as the sound of the marching feet of a determined people.” This was said by Martin Luther King Jr, a well known Civil Rights activist. Throughout history, people of different skin colors, ethnicities, and religions have had to fight for their rights. In both Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech and the Expert 21 interview “Leader of the Freedom Riders: Bernard Keith Jarvis with James Farmer”, the speakers addressed how black people have had to claw their way through society over the years, and fight the harsh discrimination they were receiving due to the color of their skin. In his speech, Obama spoke about the journey and hardships people of color have had to face over the years. In the interview, a former
Obama begins his speech by referencing the Declaration of Independence, and expresses the idea that even an important document was not able to make an immediate influence on the way people treated those who were different than them. His speech states, “And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States” (264). The Declaration, although it is an official government document, could not change the minds of everyone. Black people were still facing discrimination and injustice, and would continue to face it for years to come. Obama also addresses the idea that, even though it has been years since the Declaration and the Civil Rights Act, people of color are still treated with disrespect and injustice. The text states, “The memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor have the anger and the bitterness of those years” (265). Despite the various events, activists, and speeches, people of color are still treated unfairly. The fear of people who are “different” has been evident throughout history, and still is to this
In his speech “A More Perfect Union”, Barack Obama is successful in portraying this theme using examples from history in which people of color have been discriminated against, and have tried to fight back. In “Leader of the Freedom Riders” the speaker, James Farmer, is successful in portraying this idea through a personal experience of a time when he protested against the lack of rights for colored people. Overall, people of all colors should be treated with respect. Though everyone may look different, everyone is truly the same. Many people in society over the years have been treated with disrespect because the color of their skin is not considered “normal.” People of color have had to suffer through horrible discrimination and serious lack of rights simply because their skin was not the same shade as everyone else. They have had to fight their way to justice and freedom, something they already should have had to begin with. No one should be treated as less than because of the color of their skin. Martin Luther King Jr. (the Civil Rights activist previously mentioned), in his “I Have a Dream” speech, said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The color of someone’s skin does not matter;it does not determine who they are. Put aside