An Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

By 1963, when Martin Luther King planned a campaign against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. During the demonstration he was arrested and lives in the jail for eight days. While he was in prison, he wrote his "letter from Birmingham Jail" to explain his actions and those who urged him to call off the demonstrations. Martin Luther King Jr. Birmingham Jail is important because, he explains the reasons for the non-violent demonstrations, he shows that black people are intelligent, and he criticizes the unjust laws of black people.

The Letter From The Birmingham Jail was very important and full of facts that some may have not known of. These are just a few interesting facts that you have learned about the Letter form just reading this essay. What other facts can we find out about this interesting but yet powerful in the civil rights movement. So the next time you come across on the internet letters about him or other things about Martin luther king is just rember about all the stuff he has done and this powerful letter he gave. Martin Luther King once said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

seems to address the entire country and whoever reads the letter, instead of his main audience who are the eight white clergymen. This letter was written to certainly impact anyone who read it and to persuade people and the clergymen to take effect. Throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr. remains calm, although he is in jail for leading a nonviolent protest for equality and ending segregation. His tone is urgent but remains gentle. King remains stern and speaks about his cause and what he believes in. King's main themes of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is justice and action. Martin Luther King does a great job convincing his audience that justice was lacking, and action needs to occur. When reading the letter, the reader is convinced King presents a very effective and persuasive argument. King tries to convince his readers that the time to act is now. Dr. King uses a lot of ethos in his letter by using his audiences’ morals and ethics and evidence that supports his argument to convince the clergymen and people reading that segregation is wrong and the matter needs to be addressed. Dr. King also uses pathos, emotion, to try to appeal to his audience to make his letter more effective. Some examples of pathos throughout the letter where Dr. King tells about elderly African Americans being mistreated, imprisoned people being mistreated, King also uses his young child's bitterness toward

Letter from Birmingham Jail was a letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from a solitary confinement cell in Birmingham, Alabama. Some portions of the letter were written and gradually smuggled out by King 's lawyer on scraps of paper including, by some reports, rough jailhouse toilet paper. Violent racist terror against African Americans was so horrible in Birmingham in the summer of 1963 that the city was being referred to by some locals as “Bombingham”. King had been arrested while participating in a peaceful anti-segregation march on the grounds that he did not have a parade permit. He had been called to Birmingham by one of the affiliates of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group of which King was president, to help in the protests of the extreme racism present in Alabama. Segregation laws and policies were part of the Jim Crow system of separate schools; restaurants, bathrooms, etc. for blacks and whites that existed far beyond the era of slavery, especially in the American South. Several local religious figures Dr. King had counted on for support simultaneously published a letter entitled A Call for Unity, which was critical of King and his supporters. King 's letter, in turn, identified and responded to each of the specific criticisms that he understands are being made by these men, specifically, and by the white church and its leadership, more generally; however, this letter was also deliberately written for a national audience.

In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. informs the readers of the reasons how and why he is giving a nonviolent protest to racism. King begins the letter stating how he was invited to Birmingham and how he is trying to fight against the “injustice.” In his letter King continues on to explain that the black men have waited to long for justice and they are still fighting it in the present today through the unjust laws. The white churches were brought up negatively through the letter numerous times especially since the letter was specifically written to the clergy members. Dr. King ends his letter in personal hope that the clergy men will see what is wrong in the overall picture of injustice in Birmingham and

King’s letter from a Birmingham Jail was an act of his encouragement for protest against the white’s traditions in which were unjust. King, a leader of civil rights

Martin Luther King had several different audiences he addressed in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. One of them, obviously, being the clergymen. Another are his fellow brothers and sisters of color. Another audience, and the reason for this letter, would be those who criticized him and his Civil Rights work and beliefs. King is using his experiences and the experiences of others to try to get his message and concerns to those who disagree with the actions he is trying to take to further the Civil rights movement.

At the beginning of the letter, (from paragraph 1 to paragraph 3) King successfully reverts his passive position as prisoner to a busy leader minister, who had little time to respond to criticism. In the first paragraph, he kept his polite tone, and made the statement in such a way that he was not forced to answer but willing to reply because he respected those clergymen's good will and sincere. Then, in the following paragraphs, he answers the question:" Why is Martin Luther King is here in Birmingham?" In this section, the words "more basically", "moreover" show a logical organization. He mentions his president position in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to indicate his responsibility of the situation of Birmingham. Here, he emphasizes the invitation and organization ties to imply that he should be respected as a guest. In the coming paragraph, he compared himself as a minister with those Christian saints in the history to gain trust and more respect. Then he focuses on the duty of a human being and an American citizen, who should show more concern to those injustices no matter where they are. Here, he refutes the clergymen's statement about "outsiders coming in" by saying:" Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea"(King 404). By the end of the first section of the letter, King has perfectly got the trust and respect he deserved as a man, a minister, a civil rights leader, even a prisoner. We can see

While I was reading Dr. King’s letter his main thesis to me was the fact that he was trying to protest peacefully and make amends with the clergyman. He was taken into jail where he had to explain himself writing this letter so that they will understand why he decided to take such actions. The worst part is that he was trying to make his point across to this man when he was doing nothing wrong just expressing his concerns as any other citizen, but not even a peaceful protest was allowed back then. Dr. King was trying to make society understand that black people are human too who have values and deserve to be treated like every other person.

While Dr. King was already heavily respected in the north as a skillful speaker and priest, the situation in Birmingham led Dr. King to have to establish how he is credible. The beginning of his letter is an appeal to ethos, showing that he is a man of reason, and respecting the will of the public officials that are criticizing him. “But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms” (King, 1963). This statement is one of many steps to show his credibility by establishing that he is a man of reason. In a time of racist ideology, the majority in Birmingham would have believed that African Americans are inferior beings, not able to grasp logic and reasoning. Dr. King removes this bias by addressing the public officials not as hostile enemies, but as intelligent men able to hold reason. His hope that he will be reasonable also adds to how he attempted not to appear cocky in his arguments.

The second and third paragraphs state the thesis and says that even though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not a resident of Birmingham, he was there for a specific reason and that reason happened to be because of the many injustices that the white community was facing the black community with. In the Letter

In the summer of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. went to Birmingham due to a large amount of segregation happening there. Dr. King was invited to Birmingham because of his connection with the Southern Christian leadership conference. Because he was the president of the conference he felt the need to be in Birmingham to fix the segregation there. While Dr. King was in Birmingham he and fellow protesters were arrested. In his letter Dr. King’s letter he answers statements that white leaders said to him. In his letter, Dr. king’s rhetoric, tone, sentence structure, diction, and appeals were all presented well.

:"Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a powerful piece of writing that graces the writings by Martin Luther. Part of the power lies in the use of rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos, and pathos in the letter. Luther used these stylistic devices and literary approaches to express his message, intention and express the mood of the letter making a masterpiece like no other letters before.

His whole letter was a response to someone that criticized him for what he believed in and what he did to help his community. He was simply telling them why he did what he did. With all valid arguments, I personally believe Martin Luther King, Jr. achieved his purpose in explaining why he was an advocate against slavery and why he did such things for the sake of freedom. Even though there were so many more points he justified, for not only himself but his community, this essay is getting quite long. So, I completely agree with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter and I am moved by what he had to

While in jail, Dr. King experienced many difficulties and hardships but rather than whining about his struggles he decided to write a letter to his followers outside of the jail. He speaks on the injustice, lack of freedom, and abuse his people are enduring which he does not agree with or will not stand by and let it happen. His outspokenness and his drive for equability is how he (wrongfully) ended up in the Birmingham city jail in the first place. The idea and vison of the letter was great and probably desired by his people but it could have been written out and executed in a different manner although he wasn’t as highly educated as he would have liked to be due to the color of his skin.