Perspectives

This last part of the study guide will give you a few other points and ideas that will help you to put the speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Dr. Martin Luther King into perspectiv…

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Periodical perspective

Consider looking at the larger periodical perspective, particularly at the events following the speech (those preceding the speech are detailed by the King in the speech when he talks about the Civil Rights Movement). King was assassinated the day after the speech and this led to violent riots in numerous U…

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Current issues

The speech focuses on the specific topic of the sanitation workers’ strike in 1968. However, at a general level, the speech is about the economic and workplace discrimination of African Americans during those times. Since then, many things have improved…

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Textual perspective

We encourage you to consider comparing “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” with similar speeches such as “I Have a Dream” (1963) by the same speaker, or Malcolm X’s speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” (1964).

If you look at King’s “I Have a Dream”, you will notice that the speaker uses similar rhetorical devices, such as repetition, allusion, and antithesis, as w…