Martin Luther King Jr. Essay

Because Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s grandfather, father, and mother were reverends, religion was always a significant part of his life. King, as an activist for racial equality, continued to follow the lessons and advice of the bible. The bible has an evident impact on how King sees the world around him; "I say it as a minister of the gospel who loves the church, who was nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its Spiritual blessings, and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen." After his arrest for leading an equality movement in Birmingham, eight white religious leaders criticized his actions and beliefs. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is his dignified response to their criticism. King condemns

Martin Luther king through his letter “letter from Birmingham jail” he revealed his ethical thought by enunciating real facts furthermore he did not only consider his own viewpoints rather he considered viewpoints of many other people in relation to churches hypocrisy and unjust laws versus just laws. Despite the fact that martin Luther king was in jail, Luther uses ethical thought to critique the ministers by articulating his beliefs and ideas via displaying descriptive and meaningful illustrations of ethics of law and sensible thinking. In his letter king exceptionally introduces his point of view via observation of multiple people by using coherent thinking and more to that having a mentality that is fair minded.

A multitude of his words possessed an ethical essence and he turned these words into one of his greatest weapons to persuade the clergymen. “Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber” (King 4). This may have been one of the more direct quotes that stuck in the minds of many, perhaps even the clergymen. King demonstrated how there was a problem in society; the blacks were being wrongly accused and punished for crimes that were made against them. To any human, this would have made sense. Connecting on a higher lever, in a rhetorical analysis, “Rhetorical Distance in ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’”, the author, Michael Osborn, conveyed a quote by King saying, “It will triumph because of its vital identification both with America and with the will of god” (29). This quote established an ethical conclusion made by King; he stated that his efforts would succeed because they agreed with the identification of America and the will of God. King made the assertion here that his cause aligned with what would be best for his country, and he also ethically tied his cause to God. “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty” (King 3). Here, King stated that everyone had a moral obligation to rebel against an unjust law, but everyone also needed to rebel peacefully and take on the punishment to come. By connecting these ideas together, King had a greater chance of pulling his audience in, especially since his audience were men and women of Christianity. Not only did King connect to his audience on a moral level, but he also connected with them on an emotional

Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a direct response to "A Call for Unity," a letter penned by eight Alabama clergymen including one rabbi. In "A Call for Unity," the eight clergymen decry the peaceful protests organized by Dr. King and his fellow civil rights activists. The clergymen claim that the protests are "unwise and untimely." In his response written from jail, Dr. King outlines all the reasons why the peaceful protests are both wise and timely, for, in his words, "we have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights." There is a clear reason why Dr. King's legacy remains strong, whereas the clergymen's misguided letter has fallen into history's dustbin. Because King writes with skillful logic, appeals to his reader's ethics, and proves his credibility as a political leader, "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a more effective argument.

In Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Dr. King uses the rhetoric devices of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the whole letter. While each component of his letter is an important key part of the process of persuasion, I believe that paragraph twenty-one is the strongest within his letter. Within this paragraph King uses multiple examples of mainly logos, but also pathos and egos in harmony in order to further prove his point of persuasion to his audience. These rhetoric devices were used in a way that I believe gave Martin Luther King Jr. the upper hand in approaching his audience. His audience throughout the paper was broad, but I believe that this paragraph addressed an important audience: The Clergymen. Not only does King use these rhetoric devices, he uses them in way that bring about the most benefits in terms of persuading his audience to agree

Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” (“Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes”). He stood up to his word by always standing up for the rights of fellow African Americans. On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for violating the Alabama law against mass public demonstrations. Following his arrest, eight clergy members of a local church criticized his protest and called it “unwise and untimely.” In response to many of their accusations, King wrote a letter from his jail cell in Birmingham (“Letter From Birmingham Jail (1963)”). One accusation that the clergymen made was that King’s nonviolent protest was “extreme”. King employed many rhetorical devices to respond to this claim, but the most persuasive devices he used were logos, allusions and parallelism.

In Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," King uses both logical and ethical appeals in order to create common ground with the clergymen. His extensive knowledge of religion and background as a clergy himself, allows King to directly relate to his audience and discuss the matters at hand.

First, Martin Luther King Jr. establishes his credibility as an honorable and trustworthy man to effectively convince his audience of his moral and just actions. To begin his letter, he acknowledges the fact that the clergymen see him and his allies as “outsiders coming in” (King Jr. 1). However, he counteracts their false claim by introducing himself as “president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state” with “some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (King Jr. 1). By doing so, King Jr. puts himself in a position of authority to demonstrate to the clergymen that he is not just an average man trying

Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” was written in a time when racism was so strong, it interfered with daily life. During this time of hatred, many things happened that King did not necessarily agree with. King, unlike many other African Americans, decided he would stand for it no longer. When he found a solution he thought would work, it caused conflict between the races and everyone began to fight, for what they believed was right, for their races. In King’s letter, he tries to explain, to his clergymen, what they had done was necessary if anything was going to change for the African American race. He explains, his reasoning through an effective process of writing, by using ethos, pathos, and logos. King uses ethos to show his true leadership to his clergymen, pathos to express his emotions due to the way he and other African Americans were treated and logos by using many supported examples.

Martin Luther King started his letter right off placing himself on an equal playing field as the white clergy that was criticizing him when he wrote his salutation “My dear Fellow Clergymen.” From those beginning words it is evident that Mr. King was using Rhetorical appeal of ethos, pathos and logos to establish ethical credibility in his work, emotional responses to convince of his honesty and an appeal to logic to persuade his audience in his dedication to the Civil Rights Movement.

In order to understand which one is more effective one must understand the purpose behind the works of their pieces. King is a civil rights activist who was thrown in jail due to lack of parading permits. XXX from the clergymen of the church. He responds to them by writing the well known article, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” His purpose in his piece is to respond to criticism against non violence civil obedience and to preach against injustices.

In order to understand which one is a more effective one must understand the purpose behind the works of their pieces. King is a civil rights activist who was thrown in jail due to lack of parading permits. An article was written by clergymen criticising king as a leader for the black community. He responds to them by writing the well known, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” His purpose in his piece is to respond to criticism against non violence civil obedience and to preach against injustices.

King writes as a Clergyman, an American Citizen, a Judeo-Christian leader, a Christian Brother, a Political Moderate, a Nonviolent Direct Activist, and Anti-Segregationist, a United States Negro, a Creative Extremist, an Integrationist, and a Civil Rights Leader. All are intertwined by the common thread of moral and just activism for the betterment of Negroes in the United States, specifically Birmingham. As a member of all of these communities, he brings credibility to his argument and can speak on the behalf of both sides, even those that conflict with one another. He defines his own membership within each community according to the overall effect it will have on his refutations of the four main accusations in the public statement.

As many already know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the beloved pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Most critics attribute most of his success to his highly respected leadership position in the black church. With the congregation as his focal audience, he gained majority of his supporters through his sermons by expressing his political concerns and desires. His teachings were so cultivating and motivational, many began to believe his works were prophetic. In this paper I further dissect the matter of establishing King as a preacher and/or a prophet by defining each term according to both my personal definition and the definition of well known scholars, then evidence would be provided that support King both a preacher and a prophet but,

In August 1963, while sitting in Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King wrote a letter responding to the statement of the eight Clergymen. This letter addressed the criticisms of the marches conducted in Alabama. The Clergymen were not thrilled with the direct-action King and the protesters took. During this letter, King fights the battle with a well-mannered, step by step defense. King expertly combines Ethos and Logos to appeal to the Clergymen while using Anaphora, Imagery, Deductive Reasoning.