He furthers this credibility by noting that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South. King’s connection with the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights directly confronts the clergymen of Alabama by including a local, well-respected organization of Alabama, as one of his supporters. The incorporation of this organization in his text intensifies his ethos by signifying that the clergymen’s families, neighbors, and fellow citizens of Birmingham, are supporters of his movement. King begins his letter by informing the clergy men why he is in Birmingham, the concept of nonviolent direct-action, and the sequence of events leading to his “direct action” approach. King recounts his presence in Alabama as an invitation.
When he wrote in the letter, “You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement... fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations." Dr. King addressed a flaw in the clergymen’s argument. This statement then leads to his point that the demonstrations were inevitable and necessary. When he wrote the phrase, “… left the Negro community no alternative,” he managed to emphasize that there was nothing else African-Americans could do.
In Birmingham, Alabama, desegregation was being violently resisted by the white population. The city was dubbed ‘Bombingham’, due to the frequency of attacks on black homes and activists. Imprisoned and held in solitary confinement after defying an injunction against the protests, Martin Luther King wrote his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. In response to criticism from local white clergymen, he set out his reasons for action in Birmingham and elsewhere. After his
As a leader of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King argues for the urgency of changing segregation laws. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” it addresses the public statement made by the Eight Alabama Clergymen. King effectively proves that his demonstration in Alabama was not “unwise and untimely” as his fellow clergyman has stated through the use of sentence structures, an anaphora, and some metaphors. To demonstrate his desperation for change, King stresses on the amount of time the Africans in the United States had waited through a well-planned use of sentence structures. He repeats “wait” in paragraph 13 to build up tension and to place more emphasis to the word.
Dominick Bedasse ENC1102 February 22, 2011 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attempts to validate his actions of demonstrating against segregation in response to criticism by Alabama clergymen. In hopes of reaching out to the clergymen, King argues for desegregation through his use of ethical appeal, emotional appeal, as well as logical reasoning. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opens his letter by making note of the fact that he is the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (p. 2). This may be an attempt for King to establish himself as a credible figure; one whose words are legitimate and has an argument deserving of full attention. King also states that he is “compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my (his) home town.
Letter From Birmingham Jail The background of this speech is MLK Jr. has been imprisoned in the Birmingham jail after participating in a nonviolent protest in the streets of Birmingham. As a result of this protest eight white Alabama clergymen made a statement titled “A Call for Unity,” in which they criticize MLK Jr.’s involvement in Birmingham, viewing him as an “outsider” who causes trouble. Their view is that the battle for racial integration should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. The speaker’s (Martin Luther King’s) goal is to educate his fellow clergymen as to why he has come to Birmingham when he receives criticism from them calling his “present activities ‘unwise and untimely.’” His goal is to also persuade the clergymen that his non-violent protests are necessary. He begins by establishing rapport between himself and his audience by stating that he receives many criticisms and that he has personally decided to respond to this one because he believes the clergymen are “of genuine good will” and that their criticisms “are sincerely set forth.” The argument that the clergymen have used against King is that “outsiders [should not be] coming in” to Birmingham.
On April 12, 1963, a group of white Birmingham clergymen wrote a letter to Martin Luther King Jr., who, at the time, was imprisoned in the Birmingham jail for breaking a court injunction requiring him to discontinue the civil rights protests. While supporting the civil rights movement, the letter emphasized the clergymen’s wish that the movement take place within the government and without public protests on the streets of Birmingham. King believed that the clergymen’s position in the letter, requesting that the demonstrations on the street not take place, lacked justice. Their desire to avoid a public demonstration failed to acknowledge the unjust conditions under which the African American community was forced to protest. King then responded openly with a letter that he addressed to the clergymen, but it was also directed to the entire world.
Subba-1 Hari Subba Ms. Nicole, Stanbury English 2010 Literary Analysis Response “Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]” “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” (Dr. King) In 1963 Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saw injustice and segregation for black people. His nonviolent campaign convinced his people that you have to fight for your rights and your freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter describes many injustices that the black community endured. Unfortunately, inequality still exists all over the world in many forms. The struggle for civil rights is a familiar story(Moore 2) After I read the first paragraph of second page, I was very uncomfortable.
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).
There are times that Christians are slaves to the power of evil, not realizing that it has robbed God of his glory and human beings of salvation. However, God is much greater than the devil (1 John 4:4), but for the current conflict on earth, God has chosen to involve His people as members of His mission. As believers in Jesus Christ, God can accomplish every aspect of His mission through