Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

Within Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, he addresses eight white clergymen who fill his desk with disagreements and criticism of his acts of attempting to abolish segregation. To give a better understanding to his audience he correlates his speech with religion, signifying himself to be similar to the Apostle Paul, while speaking up about the injustice being done in Birmingham. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks strongly about being unable to stand back and watch the disputes in Birmingham unravel. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,” famously said by Martin Luther King Jr. bonds his idea during this speech that we are all affected by any type of injustice, small or large. Martin Luther King Jr. uses metaphors as a light of logic, first person point of view to add ethics with trustworthiness, and a tone of passion for the emotional aspect while addressing the clergymen.

In 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, a group of eight white clergymen wrote a letter criticizing the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and others protesting racial segregation. After being arrested for protesting and reading the letter in a local newspaper, Dr. King decided to address the clergymen by writing to them on the sides of the newspaper. This passionate letter was Dr. King’s attempt to convince the clergymen that the protests and actions they were witnessing were necessary and justified. Throughout this letter, Dr. King uses logos, pathos, and ethos to strengthen his argument and to persuade his readers that

King’s salutation establishes his credibility by proving that he knows his audience and purpose, and it immediately reveals that his goal is to justify his position and not unleash a vicious attack on the clergymen. This simple salutation makes the audience more open to his thoughts, as they realize that the goal isn’t to vilify. His immediate audience is the Birmingham clergymen, and his broader audience is the group of white segregationists. In addition, one of his main points in the article is unity, and addressing the clergymen in this manner emphasizes that theme from the beginning.

To stand against injustice is a tiresome and lonely act, especially when religious leaders in a community discourage your efforts. However, one such man, civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, pushed through those feelings of abandonment while jailed after one of his protests in Birmingham Alabama. He wrote a rhetorical essay “Letter From Birmingham Jail” (later published June 1963 in the Libertarian) arguing several criticisms regarding his protesting tactic issued in a public statement “A Call For Unity” by eight clergymen in Birmingham Alabama. Dr. King’s purpose was to impress upon his readers that injustice affects every individual and when left unaddressed, citizens, especially our religious leaders, have the moral responsibility to act promptly, nonviolently, and when required, challenge or break unjust laws for the better good of society. The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” reflects Dr. King’s brilliance in persuasion writing, by employing all three rhetorical devices woven throughout his essay.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and most recognized human rights activist in the sixties, tries to convince the clergymen that his non violence sit ins are the only way to get freedom for the Negros in Birmingham Alabama in his ”Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He is responding to the clergymen argument that his non violent sit ins are untimely and unwise. He uses a mixture of rhetorical analysis factors to get his point across. King formulates his cause through logos, ethos, and pathos, by giving several key points to make his argument in his letter. He argues that his direct action program is the only

“A Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was written during the peak of the civil rights movement. In the letter, Dr. King uses many rhetorical devices to discuss the racial discrimination that was sweeping the nation. Although Dr. King is presently seen as an American hero, during the Civil Rights Movement he was simply seen as another negro trying to break the social norm. In "Letter From Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King uses many rhetorical devices to counter the arguments made by eight white clergymen.

Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his speeches and active movements against segregation and oppression of African Americans in the mid-1900s. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King makes apparent the three artistic appeals, especially logos and pathos. Throughout the entire piece, King repeatedly appeals to logos and pathos using a series of rhetoric including anaphora, imagery, and allusion. By using these literary devices, King is able to effectively correct the misconceptions held by his accusers and justify the behavior of the nonviolent protest by shining light on the unjustified segregation that is holding the African American community hostage. In a response to a statement issued by eight white religious leaders of the South, King maintains a steady and respectful tone conveying to his audience his refinement and good cause.

One of the most famous documents in American history is the 1963 letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King was considered the most prominent and persuasive man of The Civil Rights Movement. He was an ordained minister and had his doctorate degree in theology by the time he was twenty-five years old. In Montgomery, Alabama, King served as a pastor. He also served as a president or leader of several notable associations.

At a time where African Americans felt oppressed by whites, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for what he felt was right and spoke the truth about controversial issues such as inequality and injustice. During the 1960s when he wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, segregation was a major controversy. There was a divide between African Americans and white Americans with racism and prejudice being very prevalent throughout this era. Public places, like restaurants and bathrooms, were being split up into sections based on race. As a nonviolent protester, King frequented in silent marches through southern cities, especially Birmingham, Alabama. The goal was to act in a nonviolent way towards whites and stay persistent. From this,

During the 1960s, black people are terrorized, beaten, thrown in jail, and humiliated, all while religious leaders who preach “doing the right thing,” stand by and watch. Reverend and civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr., in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, describes why he is being held in Birmingham Jail and how civil disobedience is used to bring light upon the social injustice of segregation. King’s purpose is to defend himself and his movement, address the problems of clergymen, and to call for a change. He adopts a righteous and direct tone and uses rhetorical appeals in order to express the problems that he, and other people involved in the civil rights movement, are facing to white, male, religious leaders.

Letter from Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis In the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr demonstrates his fury with the delay of the civil rights promised in U.S. Constitution. In a specific passage in the letter, Dr. King addresses that his actions are timely, and that change must be put in order. Dr. King makes the reader feel mournful, uses strategic repetition, and syntax through the use of a periodic sentence in the Letter from Birmingham Jail to convey that integration cannot be postponed any longer. Dr. King uses strategic repetition to illustrate the long lived feeling of “waiting” for a change.

On April 3, 1963, blacks began a campaign against discrimination in Birmingham with the help of Martin Luther King, Jr. the court ordered King not to hold a protest in Birmingham. The reason for the protest was the segregation of the races was absurd and it became hard for blacks to reside. Segregation in Birmingham included everything from churches to libraries to restaurants, and even schools. The constant discrimination turned into a rage of violence against the minority group. Through the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. the author appeals to the rhetorical devices such as logos, pathos, and ethos to argue his letter which addresses the contradiction in the community of the clergymen.

The structure of Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is integral to the clarity of his argument. His introduction as the “president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference” is his first appeal to ethos (King). Dr. King received criticism as he made evident his intent to help the racially discriminated African American community in Birmingham, and he begins with this rhetoric to establish his trustworthiness and challenge the criticism from the denizens of Birmingham.

He juxtaposes the high hopes he had held for the church based on its supposedly moral standing with its actual state of hypocrisy in which it worships God but turns a blind eye to racial injustice. King then emphasizes this hypocrisy using parallel structure and rhetorical questions to support his argument. By addressing the clergymen directly and using positive words like “hope”, “justice”, and “moral”, he also appeals to pathos to remind his audience of the values that the church stood for and call it to return to those values. Next, King alludes to the early church to show the church’s “powerful” beginnings. He uses a metaphor comparing the early church to a thermostat instead of a thermometer, emphasizing the active role the church must take in standing up for its beliefs and influencing society. By referring to the early Christians as “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators”, King links himself to them, increasing his credibility, and rebukes the clergymen for criticizing him using similar terms. He also explains that the early Christians “pressed on” despite resistance from society because they were “called to obey God rather than men”, further connecting his work with God’s will and implying that anyone who challenged him was challenging God Himself. King then continues to describe the present state of the church. He juxtapositions the strength of the early church with the weakness of the contemporary church and uses negative words like “weak”, “ineffective”, and “uncertain” to show his audience how the church has degraded from its original status. King’s subsequent declaration that the “judgment of God is upon the church as never before” invokes the authority of God to evoke a sense of fear from his audience, thus appealing to pathos. He supports his claim with a cause-and-effect statement that appeals to logos

Martin Luther King Junior has many well know words from his “I Have a Dream” speech and from his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He uses the literary devices logos and pathos to support his evidence in his speeches and writings. In Martin Luther King Jr’s writings and speeches he uses more pathos throughout. MLK mainly got to your emotions and made you think if what you were doing or thinking was right.