Audacity of Hope: Themes
You can find this storyboard in the following articles and resources:
Black History Resources 6-8
Teacher Guide by Liane Hicks and Rebecca Ray
Students can research the issues that led up to the Civil Rights Movement, and discuss ideas like equality, racism, segregation, and intolerance. A discussion of this sort is also a good segue into talking/learning about different groups that have been discriminated against in the past or present.
Black History Resources 9-12
Teacher Guide by Liane Hicks and Rebecca Ray
Students can choose an important person from history and do a storyboard biography about them and their contribution to equality and/or society. They could also analyze Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Storyboard Description
Barack Obama's speech "Audacity of Hope", given at the 2004 Democratic convention when he was a senator, was a milestone in his career that catapulted him to fame, inspired millions, and led him down the path to the presidency. This activity analyzes the themes present in his speech.
Storyboard Text
- DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY
- "Let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely ... My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America, your name is no barrier to success."
- COMMUNITY AND UNITY
- "It's not enough for just some of us to prosper. For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people."
- HOPE
- "Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope: In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead."
- Obama begins his speech explaining his diverse background, an African father and white American mother, remarking that his story is possible in America because of the promise and progress of a multi-racial democracy where we live up to our creed "All men are created equal".
- Obama continues his speech with a call to action for unity to tackle the issues of economic hardship and racial prejudice saying that we are all "our brothers/sisters' keeper" and that by working together, we can solve problems.
- Obama finishes his speech with an appeal to hope, not blindly but with the willingness to put in the work to affect change. Meaning that with the "audacity of hope", opportunities abound and all things are possible.
- THEMES IN AUDACITY OF HOPE
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