An Endless Fight By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King’s inspiration for writing his, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was mainly to appeal to an undeniable injustice that occurred during his time. His letter was in response tos eight white clergymen, who objected to King protesting in Birmingham. Dr. King effectively crafted his counterargument after analyzing the clergymen’s unjust proposals and then he was able to present his rebuttal. Dr. King effectively formed his counterargument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen and then using logos, pathos and egos to present his own perspective on his opponent’s statements.

It takes a strong human being to fight racial injustice and that is what Martin Luther King Jr. was, In “Letters from Birmingham jail” Martin Luther King, responded to his fellow white clergymen who opposed his nonviolent approach to get racial justice for African Americans while he was confined in Birmingham jail. Throughout the letter King Use rhetorical devises such as allusion to biblical and historical figures, metaphors, and anaphora, that allows the reader to think about the issues King is talking about. In the letter the author use allusion to biblical and historical figures to allow the reader to create parallels in their minds. The parallels leads to comprehension of what King is saying through his letter.

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

King’s use of many rhetorical devices in these three paragraphs of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” solidify his conviction that segregation needs to be quelled immediately. Dr. King’s explanations justify the demonstrations and protests that he is participating in. Although this was a letter meant for clergymen, Dr. King simultaneously taught all of America a very important lesson: justice is a universal natural right, and when it is denied, it needs to be demanded. Racial equality is the form of justice in this case, as segregation was the culprit that divided society into two racial groups. Thus, Dr. King successfully advocated civil rights through this letter with powerful, clever

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was a powerful and eloquent letter that effectively argued the point that segregation is fundamentally unjust and should be fought with nonviolent protest. This letter, through describing the injustice taking place during the civil rights movement also provided some insight about Dr. King’s view of the government in the 1960s. Three mains themes present in Dr. King’s letter were religion, injustice, and racism.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King responds to the clergymen’s criticism on his non-violent actions being “unwise and untimely.” In his introduction, King uses front loading to provide a preview and background of what his letter will discuss. As he justifies why his actions were not “unwise or untimely” King addresses the bigger issue of the black community suffering injustices and the need to take action for justice. To convey his arguments King effectively uses quotations, allusions and pathos to support his argument and to refute what his opposition is saying.

During the 1960’s, racism was still a prominent problem in America. The Civil Rights Movement was under way. African Americans were fighting for their basic human rights. One of the most notable figures of the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr. He fought for African American’s rights using nonviolent resistance; however, during a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King was thrown into jail. While in his jail cell, Dr. King wrote a letter to clergymen from the Birmingham jail claiming his stance on peaceful confrontation on defending African American’s human rights. In his letter, Dr. King uses rhetorical devices to strengthen his argument in his letter to the clergymen. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham

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

Obviously, again my primary motivation for writing my Rhetorical Analysis of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is that this is a requirement for my English Composition Class. My heartfelt motivation for writing my Rhetorical Analysis is the respect I have for Martin Luther King’s intelligence and commitment that he displayed for the equality of the African American population. In analyzing “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, I developed an even stronger understanding of the dedication Mr. King had for the disadvantaged poor black population and the injustice that victimized them on a daily basis.

Martin Luther King’s response of “Letter to Birmingham Jail”, was a very fitting response to the Rhetorical situation. Dr. King wrote this powerful letter from his Birmingham, Alabama jail cell in response to several clergymen who criticized the protests he organized as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was masterful in his descriptive writing, exhibiting peaceful, yet stern and powerful influence in his words to condemn the behavior of the clergy. His words evoked emotion, as he described how his people felt, and why they were in Birmingham to stand up for desegregation in the South. In this moving letter, King was truly a master of rhetoric, for he managed to incorporate the three points of the rhetoric triangle, make them evident, and support his argument. Using logos, ethos, and pathos from the rhetoric triangle, King refuted the clergymen’s accusations and utilized their harsh points to present his own views instead. He presented his argument, used passionate rhetoric to explain the reasons they were wrong, and made the reader understand that segregation is fundamentally wrong in a society where all men are created equal.

“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr., is a letter in which King is writing to his “fellow clergymen” in a response to their recent criticism of the actions he was leading in Birmingham at the time. The letter was written in April of 1963, a time when segregation was essentially at a peak in the south. Birmingham, in particular, is described by King as “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” (King 7). King goes on to inform the clergymen of the reality of the situation where he is and how waiting isn’t an option anymore. In the letter, King uses a variety of rhetorical

In Martin Luther King Junior’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK uses ethos, logos, and pathos powerfully and effectively to present his argument that the discrimination of African Americans all over the country is unbearable and should be outlawed forever. King wrote the letter in Birmingham, Alabama after a peaceful protest against segregation which was King’s way of reinforcing his belief that without forceful, direct actions (such as his own), true civil rights could never be achieved.

Dr. King wrote this letter in the Birmingham jail, during that time there was a nonviolent campaing. King audience was an open letter to the public, and to response to a public statement of the eight white leaders of the south and clergymen. The purposed of this letter was to inform the clergymen of his remorse that the demonstration was taking place in Birmingham. King felt,“that the white community power structure left the African American community with no alternative.”. King uses rhetorical strategies such as ethos, logo, and pathos to prove his argument.

In Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he uses a series of metaphors and similes that allow him to express his emotions and experiences with racial injustice. While using these two devices he effectively connects to the reader and the audience while voicing his opinions. As king uses metaphors throughout his letter, he is able to convince his audience ( the clergymen) and his readers to imagine themselves in the place of African Americans, focusing on the full meaning of King’s letter. “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity. ”(pg.268, line 11)

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was thrown into jail due to participating in non-violent protests against racism and segregation in the city of Birmingham. There, he wrote the famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” which became one of the most important letters in history of the American civil rights movement (Colaiaco 1). The open letter covered many points to King’s arguments for why the marches, protests, and other non-violent actions were necessary and justifiable. James Colaiaco analyzes the key components to the letter and the different ways Martin Luther King, Jr. used literary devices to form a well written argument.