IDEOLOGICAL SCHEMATA IN “I’VE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP”: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF MARTIN LUTHER’S FINAL SPEECH

Abstract

The present study employs Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to explore the ideological construction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" (April 3, 1968). As the final words were delivered by MLK before his assassination within the Memphis sanitation strike, so this speech represents a critical intersection of labor rights, theological prophecy, and systemic civil rights resistance. The existing literature on King’s speeches mostly focuses on his rhetorical style and overlooks the cognitive mechanisms behind his persuasive power. By using the lens of Van Dijk’s Model, the study fills the gap and explores that King did not merely challenge the laws of discriminations, but systematically dismantled the subjugated minds that naturalized racial and economic oppression. This study also highlights the influence of microstructure on collective social representations, and the analysis exhibits that King strategically employed ideological schemata to reframe a localized labor dispute into a universal mandate for resistance publically.