For words have power, as proverbs points out: “The tongue hath the power over life and death” (New King James Version Prov. 18:21). This is signifying the importance of what you say even to the point where you can change a life by your words. The truth of this verse was demonstrated many times throughout the civil rights movement with the effect that the speeches given had on all present. One example of the power of words was a speech whose refrain, “I have a dream,” everyone knows. Martin Luther King Jr., the giver of the well known ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, in a few minutes painted a picture of all of the struggle. Lewis reflects “In those few moments Dr. King made plain all of our hopes, our aspirations…Everything we sought through the beatings and the blood, through the triumphs and the failures” (Lewis and Aydin 2:173). Lewis is saying that King illustrated to thousands of people what he and his fellow warriors were fighting for, and he did it all in a few minutes. He was showing what the whole movement was yearning for throughout all of the pain and the hope. The lasting power of Kings words that day is proved by the fact everyone in the United States knows about the dream that King had that day, and because his message engrained in the brains of all present in the large crowd the day that the speech was …show more content…
The importance of having company when trying to accomplish something is summed up in the Bible verse “Two are better than one for they have a good reward for their neighbor for if one falls he will lift up his companion” The Bible is basically saying that if you want to get anything accomplished the best way to go about it is with a group of people. This led to the inclusion of the masses involved in the movement. Lewis says about the March on Washington “Then we learned that the march had started without us…There goes America, I thought” (Lewis and Aydin 2:159). Lewis is pointing out that America just need to be given the chance to do something about the segregation matter, and when the marches gave them a chance, they walked away with it…literally. This showed the passion and persistence that was bottled up inside the movement. But passion and persistence were not the only things that were demonstrated by a march. The march from Selma to Montgomery that took place on March 7, 1965 is better known as Bloody Sunday and turned many heads and hearts due to the brutality that took place during it. Lewis recounts “Something about that day touched a nerve deeper than anything that had come before. People just couldn’t believe this was happening in America” (Lewis and Aydin 3:208). Lewis is saying that all those people