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.
Rhetorical Analysis Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, published in 1964 in his own book Why We Can’t Wait, addresses and explains his current situation to the clergymen of Alabama. On April 12, 1963 Dr. King was arrested in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama for contempt of court and parading without a permit during a protest. He composed this letter while he sat in the Birmingham Jail. Dr. King begins his letter by addressing the clergymen’s statements of his actions as “unwise and untimely”. He informs the clergymen of his views and the reasons for his “direct action” on the issue of desegregation.
Letter from Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. uses many different types of strategies to convince his reader bout his views on cultural segregation. King’s letter is a direct response to the eight white clergymen of Alabama. They believed that these civil rights movements should be fought in the courtrooms and not on the public streets of Birmingham. They referred to King’s action of protest as “’unwise and untimely’” ( qtd in King 289 ). Rather than writing a letter agreeing with the clergymen, King arouses his readers by bringing ethics, emotions, and logic to provoke thought and push his opinion about civil right protest.
Subject: The subject of this letter is to state the reason he is in Birmingham for trying to change segregation as social justice and his use of civil disobedience as an instrument of freedom. Occasion: Dr. King is writing this letter from inside Birmingham Jail for being accused of misuse of the law by performing in acts of civil disobedience to show his disappointment at the leadership of the clergy and laws that he and others of the black community deem as unjust. Audience: Although this letter was initially mailed to the eight white clergymen who publicly asked the black community to restrict their Birmingham demonstrations, King meant for his message to reach a much larger audience such as U.S. citizens. King used this letter as
Dr. King fought his whole career for equality amongst the races, meaning all communities with violent, racist actions should be addressed. The clergymen presented Dr. King with a list of arguments they had against him; he responded to these in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. A few of the arguments King responded to from the clergymen were to have local solutions to local problems; to pursue justice in the courts, not the streets; and to keep peace, law, and order among all. Corwin 2 The clergymen of Alabama were clearly against any outsiders coming into their territory. They had called Dr. King an outsider to the Birmingham community.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail" on April 16, 1963 to express his views against unjust laws, which discriminated against him others. In the beginning King explains that he is in jail and is taking in the things he has been criticized for. At the time King was extremely aggravated by the way the church, especially the white clergy who was not in support of the religious civil rights movement. He wrote this letter as a response to the church’s separation of holy and worldly matters concerning his cause. The letter then talks about why King was in Birmingham.
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.
These plans of a nonviolent demonstration were not the initial plans to be thought up, and the demonstrations were met with much more distain from men of the same clerical cloth as King than the conditions that brought about the demonstration. It was to these men of the faith During the years surrounding 1963, Birmingham, AL was widely known through the United States as one of the most segregated cities. In September of 1962 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- Dr. King’s organization of which he presided -- was allowed the opportunity to join alongside the Alabama Christian Movement of Human Rights to
Justice Racism has been one of the worst problems black people have endured since they came in touch with the white race. Racism is a belief that one's own race is superior and has the power to rule others. In Martin Luther King's writing “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he answers the criticism given by his fellow clergyman that judged his actions as “unwise and untimely” (King5). King makes the reader understand that black people are tired of being treated as outcasts and as an inferior race thus, reassures the clergyman that black people's inalienable rights are being ignored. However, King proves to the clergyman, in his writing, that black people deserve equal rights by appealing to the reader's emotions, appealing to logic and
In the process of helping enslaved African Americans a free African American named David Walker published a pamphlet that used religion as the base for attacks on slavery. The pamphlet was outlawed in the south, still, it reached a wide audience in the north. People were beginning to slavery as incompatible with the religious views after the Second Great Awakening. William Lloyd Garrison became the leading abolitionist. He created his own anti slavery paper called “The Liberator.” He used moral suasion to persuade reader that slavery was wrong.