Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in Birmingham Jail in 1963 as a response to the Clergymen to explain his actions and also to answer their questions on why he did not call off the demonstrations. King was a civil rights activist who organized a campaign against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. In his letter, King uses anaphora and allusions frequently. He also appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos to make his letter a paradigm of effective rhetoric. King uses allusions frequently throughout his letter.
Analysis of “I Have a Dream” and “Letter to Birmingham Jail” In the “Letter to Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King addresses the criticisms and objections that the white clergymen had made towards his and his affiliated organization’s efforts in trying to end segregation and achieve his and his people’s birth right: the right to be free through nonviolent means. Through the “I Have a Dream Speech” King speaks to his supporters and as well as to the entire nation to make them be fully aware of the injustices they are facing and through this make them stand up to those injustices. Both “Letter to Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream Speech” have the same underlying meaning however. That way too long have the black community been treated wrongly. That way too long have the black nation been “judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character (King 815)” and therefore it is time for them to rise and stand up for their rights.
Martin Luther wrote a letter in response to the Eight White Clergymen. Using ethos, pathos and logos, King tried to persuade the church to adhere to the problems African Americans are facing. He let them know that what they wrote in their letter was not the completely accurate. Most importantly he told them even if the church does not come to aid, African Americans will still overcome their struggle and gain their freedom. “But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future.” King kind of challenged the church; with or without them, African Americans will continue to strive.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have been one of the most influential leaders of his time and maybe even of all time, but it was the way in which he delivered his speeches and who he directed them towards that made him appeal to his listeners. The influence behind King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream Speech” relied directly on his use of the power of rhetoric and the awareness of his audience. The shift of tones throughout these two works of King is what brings about the way in which the audience is directed and who it is directed towards. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. King is directly in a non-broadened way addressing clergymen who were putting him to task for the non-violent protests in what they considered to
Toulmin Analysis In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King he responds to a letter written by eight, white Alabama Clergymen to the editor of a newspaper in Birmingham. He wants the audience to believe that the clergymen fail to discuss the circumstances that brought about the demonstrations in Birmingham. In September 1962, King had the opportunity to talk with the leaders of Birmingham economic community. The merchants made many promise such as how they would remove the stores’ racial signs. Upon these agreements, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, the leader of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, (including Martin Luther King) had agreed to delay the peaceful demonstrations.
Summary Response-Letter from the Birmingham Jail In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. describes the current states of injustice and inequality that plague the Negro community during this time as he is writing from his jail cell. He writes to his fellow supporters and brothers and explains the reasons for being in Birmingham in the first place were because he felt it was necessary to protest injustice everywhere. Communities such as Birmingham were known to observe segregation laws that isolated black people from white people and in his opinion were classified as unjust laws. He claims to be a supporter of just laws and a non-violent protestor of unjust laws in which violate human morals and dignity. By citing references of protest such as Jesus Christ, St. Paul, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, he justifies his current actions for the Negro community and states that he is willing to face the consequences when it comes to protesting for equal rights amongst all Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in the year 1963, a time period where African Americans were fighting for their equality. King’s legacy of devotion to social justice and true peace is manifested in this letter with perfect combinations of confidence and passion throughout. Although the clergymen deplore the activists’ actions, the prudent King uses logos, ethos, and pathos to justify those actions. King uses logos in his letter to be able to back up his counter argument against the clergymen’s accusations. He tries to support the fact that “(they) had no alternative except to prepare for direct action,” However he is able to effectively utilize several logical examples of evidence to help prove his point.
The Balance of Objection and Respect While in jail, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the letter commonly referred to as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a response to a letter addressed to him earlier from the Clergymen of Alabama in order to refute many of their claims while also appealing to his neutral white audience. Through his use of parallelism, complex periodic sentences and Biblical allusions, MLK Jr. establishes his credibility to the Clergymen as well as the “white moderate” and illustrates to them the necessity of his protest while maintaining a respectful tone that is consistent with peaceful ideology. Although the letter is written in a non-violent tone, MLK’s use of parallelism and repetition throughout the letter demonstrates
Letter from Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.” This quote sums up the main purpose of paragraph 13 and 14 in Martin Luther King’s awe inspiring “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, in the letter MLK no longer wants to wait to negotiate with the whites because they've kept him and African Americans waiting for hundreds of years. In order to express his purpose, MLK uses pathos, repetition and creative metaphors to prove why he doesn’t want to wait for someone to give him freedom anymore. The use of pathos in paragraph 14 is illustrated by the powerful examples MLK has given. MLK appeals to his audience’s emotions by using his children as an example for why he cannot wait, “to see tears welling up in her eyes when she’s told funtown is closed to colored children.” (p.13). MLK using kids as an example in the unjustness of slavery evokes a response in the audience, that might not be found if he instead used an adult as an example.
3) King balances the twin appeals to religion and patriotism throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by linking them together. When he is told that he is an extremist, he answers with “Was not Jesus an extremist for love… Was not Amos an extremist for justice… Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel” (269). Here, Martin Luther King is linking both by saying that he can not be criticized for this since other did the same for different reasons. Therefore, Martin Luther King isn’t emphasizing religion nor patriotism more than the other since he wants his ideas to appeal to everyone. Questions on Rhetoric and Style 3) King’s allusions to biblical figures and events appeal to ethos because he is proving to have credibility in what he is saying since he is referring to the bible, which many people read.