Discourses of Inclusion and Unity: A Peace Linguistic Reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream

Abstract

Public discourse plays a significant role in shaping social relations, with the capacity to reinforce divisions or foster belonging, trust and collective purpose. This paper examines how Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream, delivered during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, employs inclusive language to construct a shared identity across racial boundaries and articulate a vision of peace and national renewal. Adopting a qualitative interpretive approach, the study analyses ten purposively selected excerpts through an integrated framework combining Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), pragmatics, and peace linguistics. The findings reveal three major patterns. First, the use of inclusive deixis, collective pronouns and rhythmic repetition constructs a shared civic identity, positioning the audience within a common moral community. Second, economic and spatial metaphors reinterpret the nation’s founding ideals, presenting inclusion as the fulfilment of an enduring but unredeemed national promise rather than an entirely new demand. Third, the speech advances a peace-oriented vision by combining the expression of historical grievances with appeals to nonviolence, moral restraint, and reconciliation. The study contributes an integrated analytical framework that connects CDA’s textual and ideological concerns, context-sensitive pragmatic interpretation, and the normative orientation of peace linguistics. It further considers the implications of inclusive and peace-oriented political discourse for promoting social cohesion and democratic governance in plural and multilingual societies.