Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” is written by Martin Luther King Jr. from the Birmingham jail after he was imprisoned for being a participant in a nonviolent campaign against segregation. It was written in regards to the statement made by the white clergymen of the South. He employs rhetorical devices in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to develop the central idea of how action can no longer be delayed in regards to the oppression of the African American community by appealing to the white clergymen. King makes several sub-claims to support this central idea emphasizing that the need for action is now.

Often times in letters or passages, authors analyze strengths and weaknesses often know as rhetorical analysis. In Martin Luther King Junior’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, he uses terms of artistic appeal by utilizing ethos, pathos, and logos to demonstrate his claim. Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes personal experiences and events to therefore convince the clergyman to stop the segregation occurring and to increase the public use of nonviolent campaigning.

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 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he argues that segregation is inhumane and is hurting the American society as a whole. All the time and energy that goes into segregation is slowing down the American society’s progress to succeed as a nation. He uses several rhetoric strategies that help adopt a tone that is both personal and logical. King was able to incorporate the rhetoric triangle into his letter and still managed to address his arguments. While using pathos, ethos, and logos, Martin Luther King Jr. was able use the clergymen’s accusations to successfully promote his own views and opinions instead.

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

What do you visualize when you think of a jail cell? Some might see restraints blocking them off from the rest of the world, feel cold metal or scratchy cloth against their skin, or experience the stench of sweat and despair. Martin Luther King Jr. saw a quiet place to write. After being arrested under the charge of “parading without a permit,” Dr. King used his eleven days in the Birmingham City Jail to respond to one specific instance of criticism through a letter geared to each of the many audiences that needed to learn about the desegregation campaign. Mr. King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is absolutely effective at convincing the overall audience to join and

¨Wait...Just wait¨; For years the only thing negros heard when segregation laws were brought up is to just wait. Martin Luther King Jr. was one who was constantly told to wait, that things were changing, that people were doing everything they could to make changes, and that they didn’t need him meddling in their business. In response to all of these claims King wrote “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” In this letter King addresses many of the issues related to the pace at which segregation laws are changing and how he can no longer just sit by idly and watch. In the text King uses a number of different rhetorical strategies to get his points and ideas across. King uses pathos to appeal to his audiences emotion to get them to see things from the negro point of view, ethos that really build his credibility and get his audience to really listen to him, and logos to appeal to people's logic and compare what is happening with the progression of segregation laws in other countries compared to the United States. Although King is in the minority and has far less people on his side he deploys the use of all of these strategies so beautifully and with so much character that it is almost impossible to not side with him.

In 1963, the rights and the equality for African Americans was a cause constantly fought for. Protests and marches took place in order to push for a change in the society, to make a world where equality is achieved. In a Birmingham jail, sat a civil rights leader named Martin Luther King Jr.. Placed in this cell due to a protest held in Birmingham, Alabama when there was a court order stating it was not allowed, King wrote a letter that has become an influential and infamous piece of writing. This letter became known as, “The letter from a Birmingham Jail”. This letter calls out to the criticisms placed on King and confronts them all. In this letter, through rhetorical devices such as pathos, logos and ethos, and other rhetorical devices.

Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr in his persuasive letter, “letter from Birmingham jail” argues against segregation by using rhetorical devices. Martin Luther King Jr’s purpose is to express his struggles through segregation, he adopts an aggressive tone to get his point across to people in power.

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’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a great example of an effective and cleverly written response by a complex but yet sophisticated leader of our time. It was written in response to an editorial addressing the issue of Negro demonstrations and segregation in Alabama at the time. He delivers the message in a way with sneaky superiority. He is inviting and open allowing the clergymen to feel as though they have contributed and will contribute. He is not condescending or belittling in his approach. Even his opening is non-confrontational which is shown in his opening sentence: “My dear Fellow Clergymen” (03). King was an activist for civil rights during this time and came to Alabama to help out his fellow brothers that were

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.

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.

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.

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.