Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an example of a rhetorical text that is centered on ethos. King Jr.’s letter is a response to “Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen,” which was written about the civil rights protests that King Jr. had led in Birmingham, Alabama, causing him to be in jail. In his letter, King Jr. addresses the concerns that the clergymen had about his motives and intentions in Birmingham. A rhetorical analysis of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” shows that through his use of effective logic, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a way of re-creating the ethos that was taken away from him in “Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen”. Specifically, the arguments that King Jr. uses to defend his untimeliness, his willingness to break laws, and his extreme actions are appropriate for the audience and help him build credibility, which ideally will move his audience to action.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned for breaking a court ruling while leading a nonviolent direct-action protest program against segregation. While imprisoned, King wrote an open response; “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. This letter was addressed to his fellow clergymen, but he wanted the entire world to read it. King elaborately explains; why he was in Birmingham, why he believed change must take place immediately, and what he planned to do to help bring about this change. In his prodigious letter, King creates a vigorous yet respectful response to a criticism made by eight Clergymen from Birmingham, Alabama.
This letter appeared in the Birmingham Newspaper. In response, Martin Luther King drafted a document that would mark the turning point of the Civil Rights movement and provide enduring inspiration to the struggle for racial equality. King's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” strives to justify the desperate need for nonviolent direct action, the absolute immorality of unjust laws together with what a just law is, as well as, the increasing probability of the “Negro” resorting to extreme disorder and bloodshed, in addition to his utter disappointment with the Church who, in his opinion, had not lived up to their responsibilities as people of God. King's justification to the eight clergymen for protesting segregation begins with a profound explanation of their actions, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue”. The actions of the African American people are overdue and very well planned as King had explained in the letter.
He lived during the time where segregation was everywhere in the United States, not as a white man, but as an African-American. He wrote the letter during his stay in Birmingham jail after conducting a peaceful march in that city. He led the march in order to attack the city’s segregation system, but instead, he was imprisoned for disturbing the peace. After first stating the purpose of his letter, Dr. King used logos to start his counterargument. When he wrote in the letter, “You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham.
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was written by King in response to a critical "Call For Unity" by a group of white Alabama clergymen in Birmingham. The clergymen were critical of King for meddling in the affairs of their town. King's response was that he had every right to fight injustice in the country that he lived in. Martin Luther King wrote this letter in 1963 from his jail cell. In this letter King proclaims that the laws of the government against blacks are intolerable and that civil disobedience should be used as a tool of freedom.
Victoria Lopez English 1101 December 10, 2012 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. His purpose of the letter is to inform the clergymen of his views and the reasons for his “direct action” on the issue of desegregation. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws.
The approach thrives on presenting reasons on a certain subject and then arguing out. In order to comprehensively exhibit each of the three approaches, this paper refers to. " The letter from Birmingham Jail" is an emotional letter addressing the issues and critics of white clergymen thrown at Martin Luther king Jr, about his non-violent demonstration actions against injustice and racial discrimination among black Americans in Birmingham. Injustice is the backbone of all the social evils taking place in Birmingham and Alabama cities. Injustice is the violation of another person's right with the satisfaction of the other individual.
Martin Luther King’s Jailhouse Call for Unity On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King along with other civil rights activists marched on downtown Birmingham, Alabama as pat of a program of direct action campaigns aimed at fighting the “disease of segregation” as it existed there. He was subsequently arrested on charges of parading without a permit during which time he wrote a letter to a group of clergymen who had written him expressing their opinion that his demonstrations were unwise and untimely. His letter from the Birmingham Jail is an impassioned plea for the opposing members of society to come to a better understanding of why the time to push for the end of racial segregation in the name of social progress cannot wait any longer. King does an excellent job of effectively employing pathos in his speech in order to relate to his readers regardless of race, religion or social status. For every argument he makes, King backs it with irrefutable analogies in hopes of moving past the issue of race and getting to an understanding of humanity.
Letter From a Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an open letter to his fellow clergymen in April, 1963 after bring arrested for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. His letter was in response to statements the clergymen had made condemning and criticizing King for his “unwise and untimely”protests (King 1). In “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King used the methods of ethos, pathos, and logos not only to justify the actions that led to his arrest, but also to admonish those who sympathized with his plight, yet did little to change the inequality that existed. King recognized that before he could persuade his audience to understand his point of view, he needed to gain their trust. His ethical appeal, or ethos, is evident when he writes: “I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth” (1).
Letter From Birmingham Jail What does it mean when a person voluntarily risks losing his life for something? When I read the “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, I focused on King’s decisions to follow what he believed in, even when it was life-threatening. Try to imagine what a black’s everyday life was like in the 1960s: everywhere you go, your are seen as something much less than human; you are disrespected and belittled every time your pass someone on the street of the opposite race; the embarrassment that fills your thoughts when you drink out of the black water fountain, knowing that the clean facility next to you is off limits because of the color of your skin; depression sets in like every other morning as you wake up and try to live life as best as possible, regretting to acknowledge the fact that you will never be dealt the equal amount of opportunity and experiences as a white man; the shame that consumes your body as you silently watch a black neighbor getting beat, but you just quietly stand there, afraid to say anything against the evil normal that white society as created. How could a person live like that? At what point is the belittlement of remaining silent worse than the dangers of speaking out?