What MLK taught me about communication
Image source: "Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco June 30 1964" by geoconklin2001.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of America’s great communicators, able to say more in one line than most can put in a page. His words are etched in our minds and monuments.
Dr. King wrote and rewrote his essays, practiced and re-practiced his speeches, and continually worked on the art of it all. He made improving communication a life-long study.
His range of strategies and styles was wide and deep, and included stories, repetition, parallels, metaphors, imagery, analogy, pacing, tone shifts, and alliteration.
His grammar was impeccable and his word choice resonated with all audiences.
More importantly, Dr. King communicated from a place of integrity and self-worth that allowed him to see the humanity in every audience, even those who hated him.
In Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, he wrote: "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated."
Look closely, and you’ll see all of this in every post and lesson on the Confident Communicator.
When I started my professional career, as a young writing instructor in the early 1990’s, I used his Letter from Birmingham Jail to teach college students how to structure an argument.
If you want to learn something about persuasive communication, read the clergymen’s letter, then King’s masterful response and pay attention to his use of logic, emotion, and credibility.
From the opening paragraph:
If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
Note the difference between his positioning and rhetoric from the speeches, headlines, and essays we see today, then ask yourself, which strategy has more power?
And yes, it needs to be said, his message remains as relevant as the day it was written.
