Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr., activist and leader, in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, argued and emphasized why nonviolent direct action was not extreme when it came to dealing with racial tension in Alabama.  His letter was a well written and well thought out response to the clergymen's statement, Call to Unity, a statement that claimed that nonviolent direct action was extreme.  King’s purpose for writing his response was to persuade his audience, the clergymen/white moderates, that their thoughts on how he approached and handled racial tension were ill-judged.  He successfully got his point across in his response by using rhetorical modes of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos using biblical comparisons, explanations about his cause, and personal stories.

Dr. King was arrested in 1963 in the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans. “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written a few days after King’s arrest, defended Dr. King’s argument about the civil rights movement. He uses the pathos, ethos, and logos modes of persuasion and uses several rhetorical strategies such as metaphors, citing authority, parallelism, Rogerian strategy, and anaphora to defend his argument against racism and segregation.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a rhetorical appeal in his letter that explained the wrong of segregation. In the speech he used a logos appeal, “Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, there are lots of rhetorical strategies that he uses in response to the eight Alabama clergymen’s letter, A Call for Unity. The clergymen’s letter was criticising Dr. King’s civil rights demonstrations taking place in Alabama. The letter encouraged civil rights activists to negotiate instead of protesting and King’s letter responded arguing that it is necessary for them to take civil action and counters their claim by using ethos, asking rhetorical questions, and using numerous biblical and historical allusions.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. intentionally uses instances of allusions in order to strengthen his overall argument. In MLK’s letter titled “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he addresses the clergymen who have condemned his actions, and who labeled have him as an “extremist”. MLK addresses this by integrating a biblical allusion. For example, he states, “Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’”. MLK references what the clergymen know best, the bible. This allows him to labels Jesus as an extremist since he had an extreme love for God and his creations. This essentially puts MLK in the same group as Jesus, removing the negative connotation of being an extremist. With

First of all, Martin Luther King Jr. usesd a rhetorical strategy of repetition. King is known for his use of repetition, reference his “I Hhave a Dream” speech. Furthermore, r Repetition is used to get his your point across, and to make the reader remember it. In the letter heit states, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love,” and “Was not Amos an extremist for justice,” and again it says, “Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian Gospel.” King uses the “was not” and “an extremist” to apply effect on the situation. He wants to apply the emphasis on how these key figures in history were extremist, just like him. Again in this letter, Martin Luther King Jr.’s uses reptition in his quote again, King sayings, “let him march,” “let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall,” “let him go on freedom rides.” Martin Luther King Jr. uses the words “let him” to intensify the fact that the people should just let the Negro protest. Martin Luther King Jr. says to just let the Negro be, King statesquotes, “if his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence.” Therefore,So Martin Luther King Jr. wants to make sure he informs the people, to either let them protest peacefully or there will be violence.

The first strategy Martin Luther King uses is pathos. He states, “When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people.” (14). This is an example of pathos because this is a topic that would make anyone feel guilty or sad. People often feel more sympathetic when there are innocent children involved. When people start to feel bad about the problem, it helps them choose Martin Luther King’s side in the argument. King’s adjectives also help him persuade the reader in this situation. When he states that the tears were “welling up” it adds imagery so the audience is able to mentally picture this scene, and this will make people for guilty or sad. He also states, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed…for years now I’ve heard the word, Wait! It rings in the ear of ever Negro with piercing familiarity.” (13). This statement expresses how he have been repeatedly told to wait and nothing happened. Being told to wait for a long time weights on the patience you

King's letter that makes his words more powerful even though he is in jail. He gives examples of powerful people that were considered extremist because they are calling Dr. King an extremist. He talks of even Jesus Christ being an extremist for love, truth, and goodness (Pg 726). This shows that the world is filled with many extremist who believe in certain objectives. Not everyone will have the same beliefs as each other, but that does not make them an extremist or crazier than the other.

Martin Luther King uses allusion and biblical diction in order to solidify his argument and inspire the local clergy join in the nonviolent protests. In his letter, King cites “Like

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.” Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. wrote a long letter to some criticizing clergymen within the walls of the birmingham jail, The letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, was written about unjust laws, segregation, protests, church, and equal rights. Through his passionate need to change the minds of people and to gain support, martin uses persuasive strategies to get his message across.

On April 3rd, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr began the Birmingham Campaign. This was a nonviolent campaign which consisted of coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. MLK Jr was arrested because of this campaign on April 12th. On the same day that MLK was arrested he received a newspaper from an ally of his, this newspaper had an article about a statement from 8 white clergymen. The statement made by this men said that MLK and his methods were wrong which then provoked King to respond.

In 1963 from Birmingham jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for being a partaker in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. While imprisoned, Dr. King wrote a letter in response to a public statement issued by eight Alabama clergymen addressing King's diplomatic acts. In the letter King defends his theory of civil disobedience and peaceful demonstration. He attempts to play the humanity card. He believes that the clergymen and other whites would be able to sympathize with African Americans if he painted a picture of how unjustly they were being treated for no reason. For example, in the public statement, the clergymen urged their Negro community to “withdraw” their support from Martin Luther King’s demonstrations and let the

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a protester and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, greatly known for his use of nonviolent forms of demonstration. On a specific occasion, King was arrested for leading a peaceful protest as part of the Birmingham Campaign, which attempted to bring national awareness to the gruesome treatment endured by blacks. While in jail, King replies to the clergyman’s remarks of him being a foreign agitator in his “Letter from a Birmingham jail,” passionately defending the actions he took. The clergymen accused King of being an extremist, as they saw his relentless protesting and civil disobedience as a threat to a stable political and social system. In paragraphs 27-32, King attempts to persuade the

The entirety of King’s piece is written carefully to appeal to the pathos of the clergymen of the church whom wrote the open letter. His piece is centered around the relation of current events to the past. King relates his situation to the position in which Jesus was in. Due to the fact that both King and Jesus Christ were considered non-violent extremists, and that both were sentenced to unnecessary punishments, King is able to force the clergymen to second guess their Christianhood and judgement of right from wrong. An example of so is when King purposefully