Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered one of the most effective pieces of rhetoric in written literature. Doctor King was an accomplished scholar fighting for civil rights. He used the different rhetorical appeals to respond to eight white clergymen that had criticized him for his actions. Reverend King was so persuasive with his letter that he influenced others to join his fight for equality. As Osborn tells us, Mr. King’s “Letter” went on to cause problems for these eight men (32). He was very effective in portraying his undesirable situation from the point of view of someone that held authority. Along with portraying his circumstances, he provides logical arguments to contradict the white clergymen's statements. In addition to a logical approach, he uses his emotions and passion to make his readers feel for disturbing situation places upon the segregated community.. Reverend King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” provides a vivid insight to the civil rights movement along with rhetorical appeals that persuade his audience to join his fight for justice by establishing authority, reasoning with logic, and engaging our emotions.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in Birmingham jail not because he committed a crime but because he took part in a non-violent demonstration. King received an invite to a nonviolent demonstration by a local church and was later jailed for his actions (King 1). While in jail, King reflected on the injustice in not only Birmingham, but the world as well. King addressed injustice as a universal wrong which can only be undone by people themselves and not by action forced by the government. He quickly announced that keeping the peace and obeying the law are not the same, the people ahead do not simply relinquish their role because of the selfishness of the human nature. Those who are oppressed will seek to leave injustice behind. Martin Luther

In Letter from Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is writing a letter in response to eight white Southern religious leaders. King begins by giving his reasoning for addressing them. He mentions that he usually doesn’t address the criticism he receives. He says, “But since I feel 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 1) To me, it seems as if Dr. King had a bit of a sarcastic tone, and this is what intrigued me to read this letter.

In the midst of the Civil Rights movement, Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. found himself in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the most segregated cities in the United States at the time. While in that jail cell, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the city’s religious leaders. Through his use of ethos, pathos, and logos, King made a thought-provoking and powerful argument for the Civil Rights movement which continues to inspire change in the hearts of his audience, both implied and actual.

Injustice is a big problem in today’s society. Martin Luther King wrote the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he addressed many forms of injustices that was present then and continue to be present in today’s world. Martin Luther King did a lot of things that still effect today. He got in trouble for some things as well; such as like protesting how blacks were treated. He was arrested and was sent to Birmingham City Jail. He wrote a letter to defend the strategies of nonviolent resistance to racism. He employs the use of pathos, ethos, and logos to support his argument that nonviolence resistance is definitive. Based on the pathos, ethos, and logos present in this letter, the article is overall effective to this argument.

Martin Luther King, Jr, a nonviolent and orderly protestor, was imprisioned for twenty four hours for disobeying what he believed to be an unjust law which forbade public demonstrations. In his writing, Letter From Birmingham Jail, he adresses local clergyman's claims about how civil rights activism should be carried out, breaks down their claims, and refutes them. King explains that white moderates are more devoted to order than to justice, and although he typically respects the law, it was unjust, discriminotory laws similar to the ones he opposed that made aiding a Jew in any way illegal under Hitler's rule. King's letter is excellently written, easily understandable, and uses strong rhetorical devices to discuss his beliefs and justify his actions. It is important to remember to be critical of laws that may be unjust, and not to follow them simply because they are laws bestowed upon us by an authority.

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.

Writing from the heart, expressing feelings, having a strong emotional impact on ones audience, using an appeal to emotion and logic, using facts and presenting arguments in a professional way, to the enlightenment of one's viewers; Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail; consists of three Rhetorical Strategies throughout his letter that is known and taught around the world as ETHOS, PATHOS and LOGOS. An appeal to ethics, a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader (ethos), an appeal to emotion, and a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response (Pathos), and finally, an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason (Logos); these three Rhetorical Strategies are used countless times throughout Martin Luther King’s Letter for Birmingham Jail.

Martin Luther King Jr. uses rhetorical devices “out the wazoo” throughout his letter directed specifically at his fellow clergymen (or fellow ministers and christian leaders), otherwise known as his peers. He seems to stress many different inequities over history, specifically occurrences with the African American community. Narrowing down and focusing in on paragraph's 13-14, we can analyze his specific usage of rhetoric that justifies his argument on the timeliness and reasoning for changing the inequitable laws of segregation. King’s major usage of ethos, and especially pathos, really “hits home” in its goal to disarm the the claims opposing King’s statement, “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” This quote defines King’s goal so well to me because it clearly defines the problem as well as solution which consists of a timely journey into the seemingly unreachable depths of freedom and equality. The problem lying in the delayed justification that the laws of segregation that must be revised so that the brotherhood of the American heart may be reunited once and for all.

The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written precisely on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. the letter was written to his co-ministers in reaction to their disapproval about his deeds in Birmingham. This letter was written when there was discrimination in the South. The forcefulness and communal prejudice have created unnecessary heartache and depression among black people, with the way things are going if there is no solution to the problems things might get out of hands. The writer stresses that if they stop the protest there will not be a chance for change, acceptability, and understandings of the blacks to get the right they deserve. In addition, it will be difficult to solve the socioeconomic and human problems rising among the blacks and the whites. In order to defend his wish for racial justice and equality, the writer uses an ethical appeal, logical appeal, and pathetic appeal to earn his audience approval.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Mr. King writes to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison and establishes credibility on the subject of racial discrimination and discusses all the injustice that is going on during this time. King sends out the message that they are no better than he is by starting off his letter with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”, which puts him at the same level as all clergyman. He puts himself out to be a legitimated authority in the eyes of the people, by speaking of the intolerable acts being put on all black people to be able to justify his cause. Martin Luther King uses ethos to establish all his credibility on the matter that he is trying to get across, that justice cannot be waited on and that

Martin Luther King Jr., a well-known civil rights activist, was arrested on a Friday for protesting about delayed rights he felt African Americans deserved without a permit. Even though the first amendment grants all Americans the right to assemble and protest peacefully he was still sent to jail along with other African Americans who he protested with. King wrote this letter while he was in jail responding to eight white religious leaders of the South in concern of the treatment African Americans have endured over the past decades. Whites have made African Americans feel inferior to them for years and King was always the person to bring attention to all their wrongdoings. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail to express his strategies of using nonviolent tactics to break unjust laws that were against racism. As King wrote the letter he expressed his strategies by using ethical, logical, and emotional appeals to the readers in different readers and draw them in more.

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.

Martin Luther King Jr. targets the social injustice and racial discrimination prominent specifically in Birmingham, Alabama through his Letter from Birmingham Jail to instigate nonviolent actions in detriment to the violent racism and aggression toward the African American community. Martin Luther King Jr. underlines that hopes for the abolishment of racial discrimination have been wrongfully abated in Birmingham by false expectations, and he is attempting to take leadership as an insightful outsider to fight for fundamental civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. alludes to historical instances of insurgent civil disobedience in his Letter to appeal to ethos and establish his credibility. He also claims this racial discrimination is a shadow of the slavery in the South prior to abolition, and he appeals to logos and pathos as he underlines his indignation over this archaic mindset.

Rhetorical Analysis on “Letter from Birmingham Jail” While confined in a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Junior writes a letter to his fellow clergymen to defend himself against their criticism of his method to fighting segregation. He also intends to persuade the clergymen to fight back against the segregation. Martin Luther King Junior utilizes many rhetorical strategies and devices in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and successfully makes a strong message to his clergymen to understand his position and to persuade them to join his idea of a nonviolent fight against racism and segregation.