This picture, taken over the shoulder of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, shows an interesting perspective of the 1963 March on Washington. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves in 1863, exactly one hundred years earlier. President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 just days after the end of the Civil War, and although Constitutional amendments were passed that guaranteed rights to freed slaves, Jim Crow laws were soon passed throughout the South. This system of segregation guaranteed that white supremacy would continue to dominate southern society until the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

The most important figure in Civil Rights since President Lincoln himself, Dr. King gave his “I Have A Dream” Speech to more than 250,000 people. In this picture, Lincoln is looking down on King from a godlike position. By choosing the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as his location, King is indicating to his audience that he is fulfilling Lincoln’s ultimate goal of equality. However, King, like Lincoln, was also eventually assassinated before he could achieve that goal.

Black Panthers Visual Elements

There are numerous visual elements in this poster of the Ten Point Plan that help emphasize the message that the Black Panthers were trying to convey. First, the background of the poster is a bright orange color, designed to attract attention and show the urgency of the situation. In addition, there is a group of Black Panthers at the bottom giving black power salutes. This salute was a very powerful symbol that the audience would recognize and associate with the black power movement. Finally, the picture of the Black Panthers at the bottom is in black and white, alluding to the stark polarization of the racial situation in the United States in the late 1960s.

LOGICAL FALLACIES- Black Panther Party's Ten Point Plan

The most obvious logical fallacy that I noted after reading the Black Panther Party's Ten Point plan was the slippery slope fallacy. The slipper slope fallacy is based on the fear that once we are convinced by the argument even for just a moment, we are immediately overwhelmed by the metaphorical slippery slope and cannot stop for even a moment to consider alternative options or other viewpoints. I just believe that the demands made in the Ten Point plan were ultimately way too radical, and create a strong division between those who support the Ten Point plan and those against it, with little to no neutrality.

The goals and demands made by the Ten Point Plan were so radical at the time, that the division over the Black Panthers' ideals was quite inevitable. They used statements that demand things that even whites in America had not yet achieved, like full employment for all blacks, free health care, and exemption from military service. Also fact that the title of the guidelines that represent the ideals of the Black Panthers' has word "plan" immediately creates the connotation that these are something that will be implemented in the near future. After reading the plan, considering a possible implementation of these plans is beyond scary in the eye of the average white American in the 1960s. Then after seeing the party participating in multiple armed battles with the police, it was clear that the Black Panthers' were more than willing to take action. When the reader considers just how radical and threatening some of the statements are and the connotation of the word plan in the title it is obvious that you will become instantly against it, or passonately for it, so much so that you are willing to fight to protect these ideals; hence is why I view the arguement of the Black Panthers' as such a slippery slope.

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Noah Becker

Visual Elements - MLK speech

Martin Luther King's speech takes place on the mall in Washington DC. His audience is enormous, and filled with people of varying race. In addition to the audience in front of him, there isi a huge audience watching the broadcast of the speech. This shows the huge support for racial equality from all races. Although this may not have been true in the south, it appears to be true in the northern states. Another very interesting visual aspect of MLK's speech was the Lincoln Memorial, which stands behind Martin Luther King. Lincoln began the movement towards racial equality by pushing hard and fighting a war for the liberation of the slaves. It is appropriate that his statue presides over the crowd and speaker as they continue the struggle for complete racial equality.

Audience Analysis - Black Panthers' Ten Point Plan

The Black Panther Party was a black nationalist and socialist organization. They wanted to start a revolution in America and change the way black people lived and were allowed to live. The audience of their Ten-Point Program was both black America and US government. They targeted urban black Americans to start an uprising. They wanted to build unrest in black communities to get them to take action. In order to get black people to rally around their message and join their fight, the Black Panthers Ten-Point Program ridiculed the many wrongs committed against blacks in America. However, the Program was also directed towards many white Americans because it made many demands of the US government which was dominated by white leadership. Ultimately, the Black Panthers wanted radical change in the US, and to achieve it they needed to be heard by all.

Audience Analysis- MLK

In this picture, Martin Luther King Jr. is shown addressing a large crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial. What do we know about this crowd? What could we gather from this picture?

It is hard to gather information on this crowd through the picture, but our knowledge of the March on Washington can easily lead us gathering the crowd's information.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s crowd had one thing in common that day: they all decided to congregate on a fairly hot day in Washington, DC, to hear an influential and moving man speak. For the most part, King's crowd was homogenous- although there were some whites in the crowd, the majority of the crowd consisted of people of color. Whether his crowd was colored or not, they all shared the same ideologies; they all believed in King's mission, and that is why they showed up that day.

The audience viewed Martin Luther King Jr. as a respected and dignified leader. He represented his crowd in many ways. King was an African American male fighting for freedom. His audience longed for freedom, and viewed King as a savior for the black community.

Overall, the audience expected a moving and influential speech, and they got it. The audience knew of King's mission and what he stood for, so therefore they were expecting a moving speech regarding the Civil Right's Movement.

Michael Fernandes

ETHOS- BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S TEN POINT PLAN

When it comes to ethos, and establishing credibility this was definitely not one of the black panther party's strong points. In their ten point plan they make several demands  that would benefit the millions of black Americans in the nation, which is only a minority of the nation. Because of this they are unable to establish much credibility by creating a bridge to their audience. The black panther's were mostly viewed as radical, rebellious, and a major public enemy of the American government. The black panther's ten point plan was full of seemingly ridiculous, nearly impossible to fufill demands, and their reputation for violence against any form of government authority truly distanced the party from any sense of trustworthiness or goodwill.

On the other hand the one group or audience that the black panther party's ten point plan was able to establish ethos in was the black community. The fact that the black panther's proved that they were willing to fight to death to stand up against racist police officials, created a tremendous amount of credibility for blacks in the bay area(Oakland), where the party was founded. The party went as far as arming citzens to monitor the behavior of racist cops. As an African-American citzen during the late 1960s this did nothing but create some sort of validation behind the demands made in the ten point plan, proving that if the claims in the plan were not met, action would be taken.

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