New York, NY —
In this election year, political oratory is back in the spotlight. WNYC's Siddhartha Mitter sat down with one of New York's best known orators to talk about the art of the speech forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King.
KING: We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation…
REPORTER: Forty-plus years later, Dr. King’s style of speech remains just as powerful a part of his legacy as the content of his message. That’s a mark of how special King was, says the Reverend Dr. James Forbes. Forbes has the text of the “I Have A Dream” speech on a framed poster on his office wall. He is the senior minister emeritus of Riverside Church, and no mean speaker himself. King, Forbes says, had it all.
FORBES: He had the ability to get folks to resonate on what we call the soul level.
REPORTER: Part of it was the enormous importance of the issues King addressed. Part of it was the words he chose to give them life. But just as important were elements of technique.
FORBES: There is something about the way a speaker finds a rhythm, which almost draws the people into that rhythm.
KING: Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time…
REPORTER: Since Dr King, few if any public figures have achieved his level of rhetorical prowess – at least in the secular realm.
FORBES: Clinton had some of that pizzazz himself. And people felt that they were getting the feeling. Old Reagan had some of that stuff, and folks got the feeling from him.
OBAMA: Thank you. Giving all praise and honor to God for bringing us here today.
REPORTER: Last March, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke in Selma, Alabama, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 1965. Here’s a clip from Clinton’s campaign website.
CLINTON: They understood the right to vote [Yes!!] matters. [All right, all right!!] Now five months later, the Voting Rights Act was enacted by Congress and signed by President Johnson. But we all know it was written on the march from Selma to Montgomery.
REPORTER: In the wake of this speech Clinton was criticized for faking it – for affecting an accent and style she didn’t have, as if she were Southern, or black.
FORBES: Give her a break.
REPORTER: Dr Forbes thinks those accusations were silly. He says it’s normal for a good speaker to be drawn toward the language of the audience – and especially in the atmosphere of the Black church.
FORBES: The crowd in the building, if you’ve got any soul in you will pull you in that direction by the warmth, almost magic intrigue of their response, will have you doing stuff that you never thought you’d do before.
OBAMA: I’m a little nervous about following so many great preachers…
REPORTER: That same day in Selma, Barack Obama spoke at another church.
OBAMA: I just want to talk a little about Moses and Aaron and Joshua…
FORBES: I think that Obama is genuinely functioning out of a faith dynamic. He does not wish to put his faith as a primary credential for his political campaign, he much more respects various traditions, various styles…
REPORTER: On the Republican side, also, there’s a candidate who is adept with the pastoral touch.
HUCKABEE: Ladies and gentlemen, I recognize that running for office, it's not hating those who are in front of us. It's loving those who are behind us.
FORBES: Huckabee is a preacher. And therefore he has cultivated the art of finding words that make connections with people’s spiritual longings without necessarily always using religious language. He understands how you activate moral and spiritual sensitivity.
REPORTER: No matter the candidate, Forbes says that style matters – not instead of substance, but as a means of driving the message home.
FORBES: Folks are still moved where the gift of oratory is present. They’re moved in a prolonged way when the values are as deeply rooted in the American dream as the appeal of the speech itself.
KING: With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith…
REPORTER: Whether in the church or in the secular realm, the power of oratory is measured in its capacity to compel action. By that standard, there’s still a reigning champion that no one seems able to equal. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. For WNYC, I’m Siddhartha Mitter