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What are the issues of substantiation in the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech?

In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. relies heavily on ethical (ethos) and emotional (pathos) appeals. That being the case, not many facts are clearly presented in the speech; rather, they are mainly only implied. Since these facts are only implied, not many facts presented in the speech can really be disputed. King does use hyperbole, meaning exaggeration, to speak of at least one implied fact.In his speech,...

In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. relies heavily on ethical (ethos) and emotional (pathos) appeals. That being the case, not many facts are clearly presented in the speech; rather, they are mainly only implied. Since these facts are only implied, not many facts presented in the speech can really be disputed. King does use hyperbole, meaning exaggeration, to speak of at least one implied fact.

In his speech, King makes an implied reference to Black Nationalism when he warns his audience, "The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people." In speaking of militancy, King is making an implied reference to Black Nationalism, an ideal represented by the Black Muslims, who were led by Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Black Nationalists were in favor of complete separation from whites — even a return to Africa — and supported the use of violence to achieve their goals.

What's rhetorically fascinating is that King hyperbolically refers to Black Nationalism by speaking of the "new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community." The word engulf means to "swallow up" or "submerge" completely (Random House Dictionary). Only 15% of the African-American population of the 1950s and 60s associated themselves with Black Nationalism, though; the majority of African Americans opposed separatism and supported the nonviolent means to achieve freedom promoted by King and the NAACP ("Black Nationalism and Black Power," Digital History, University of Houston).

Facts King makes implied references to that cannot be disputed concern the extent of segregation and the racist words of Alabama Governor George Wallace, who, in his 1963 inaugural address, called for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

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