Similarities Between Kennedy And Martin Luther King Jr

The unrivaled passion of the US’s Civil Rights Movement crafted some of the greatest speakers and leaders of mankind. These people led using the instruments of change: their words, in the form of speeches and letters. Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F. Kennedy gained fame in the movement for their unequaled eloquence through letters such as King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Kennedy’s impromptu speech following King’s death. Everyone in the Civil Rights Movement strove for change but the way people started to convey their message eventually became circumstantial. An excellent example of this would be King and Kennedy, who used similar language to share their message but had factors such as the setting and audience that created vastly different reactions.
King and Kennedy have many parallels in their speeches ranging from their messages to the language they used. Similarities in language can be found in places such as the end of Kennedy’s speech - “Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people” - and in King’s letter - “...just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ...so am I
When comparing two pieces of work from this era, specifically MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Robert F. Kennedy’s speech regarding MLK’s death, one can see that speeches and letters during this era shared some similarities but were also different. The message of each work and the language used are practically the same but the audience and preceding events of each speech or letter can cause some very different reactions. Almost 50 years have passed since the Civil Rights Movement and many Americans agree that much more can still be learned from these amazing speakers and leaders and that much more still needs to be