"The Gettysburg Address"

Question

by Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg address delivered at Gettysburg Pa. Nov. 19th, 1863. [n. p. n. d.].

Gettysburg Address

Delivered at Gettysburg, Pa.

Nov. 19th 1863.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. “But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

Question
Use the passages to answer the question.

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Credit Line: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” April 16, 1963. The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.

What is significant about the date each seminal document was written?

(1 point)
Responses

Lincoln’s speech and King’s letter were written the same year, but in different states, bringing attention to the widespread issue of racism in America.
Lincoln’s speech and King’s letter were written the same year, but in different states, bringing attention to the widespread issue of racism in America.

King intentionally wrote his letter one hundred years after Lincoln’s speech to draw attention to the ongoing injustices Black citizens faced.
King intentionally wrote his letter one hundred years after Lincoln’s speech to draw attention to the ongoing injustices Black citizens faced.

Even though they deal with similar themes, Lincoln’s speech and King’s letter are otherwise unrelated because they were written so far apart.
Even though they deal with similar themes, Lincoln’s speech and King’s letter are otherwise unrelated because they were written so far apart.

One hundred years after Lincoln’s speech, King wonders why America’s Black citizens still do not have rights equal to white citizens.
One hundred years after Lincoln’s speech, King wonders why America’s Black citizens still do not have rights equal to white citizens.
Skip to navigation

Answer 1

The significant aspect of the dates on which each seminal document was written lies in the context of American history regarding civil rights and the ongoing struggle for equality.

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, during the Civil War, a time when the nation was grappling with the issues of slavery and the fight for a united country. His speech emphasized the ideals of liberty and equality that formed the foundation of the United States, suggesting that the sacrifices made in the Civil War were necessary to uphold those principles.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on April 16, 1963, one hundred years later, amidst the Civil Rights Movement. King’s letter was a response to criticism of his activism and aimed to highlight the persistent racial injustices faced by African Americans, questioning why, a century after Lincoln's address, the rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence were still not fully realized for Black citizens.

Thus, the centennial of Lincoln's speech served as a poignant reminder and critique of the progress (or lack thereof) towards racial equality in America, making King's letter an important continuation of the conversation initiated by Lincoln about justice and equality in the nation.

So, among the responses given, the most accurate is:

King intentionally wrote his letter one hundred years after Lincoln’s speech to draw attention to the ongoing injustices Black citizens faced.