Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Throughout the 1960s; discrimination, racism, bias, and prejudice in the United States occurred on a daily for African Americans. In this era of time African Americans were believed to be completely free, however underneath the current law system that was tainted, minorities were subjected to mistreatment and violence for seemingly nothing. Consequently, blacks unquestionable decided to find solutions for the broken system, leading to numerous civil rights activists groups emerging. Over 200,000 individuals assembled at the Lincoln Memorial following the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. This is where the most significant activist of them all Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. conveyed his well-known “I Have A Dream” speech to the citizens of America.

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.

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resolutely responds to eight clergymen who question his methods of protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Specifically, in paragraphs 12-14, Dr. King explains why his protests are indeed being done in a timely manner to obtain the “constitutional and God-given rights” (A Portable Anthology, page 207) that Africans have been restricted of for over 340 years. Dr. King’s argument, combined with his strategic use of rhetorical devices to enhance it, helps create a palpable feeling of understanding that captivates the audience into seeing America through his vision.

By saying this, King is making the clergymen upset because he knows how important God is to them and they would not want to disrespect him. Another way King attempts to pry his readers emotions open is by using concern. King describes how the Birmingham police are commended by citizens and how he feels when they do so. He states,“ I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment…” (King 8). From there, King uses imagery to describe the brutality committed by depicting a graphic scene of how the police dogs attack the “unarmed” and “nonviolent” Negroes that were peacefully protesting their rights. This makes the reader open their eyes and realize that the situation that occurring is serious. King wants to make his reader feel his emotion so they realize that the way African Americans are treated is not humane.

When the Alabama clergymen posted their public statement attacking the actions taken by African Americans who participated in peaceful speakings and demonstrations to spread equality, Martin Luther King reached out with his Letter from Birmingham Jail. In this piece, King expresses his respect, although ultimate disapproval of the clergymen’s encouragement for all to stand down and stop fighting against racism. King conveys the justifiability of his use of peaceful spokesmanship through rhetorical devices that build an appeal to ethos to convince the Alabama clergymen of the necessity for the battle against racism.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” - Martin Luther King. These powerful words by Martin Luther King expresses his urgent call for action in the jim crow south. Martin Luther King had just gotten arrested in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 for his protest towards civil rights. He wrote the piece Letter From Birmingham Jail in response to eight clergymen who questioned MLK’s actions and they called for unity. In this influential letter, Martin Luther King elaborates on the reasons for his actions and the need for everyone to join the cause for equality during a time of great stress and segregation between people. This letter was monumental in motivating African Americans to continue fighting against social inequality. This letter is very effective in persuading it’s readers to take action because of Martin Luther King’s use of rhetorical sense and devices to connect and spread his beliefs with his audience. All rhetorical devices are used but the two biggest factors in making this letter very effective is the use of logos and kairos throughout the piece. These rhetorical devices have allowed this piece to ring in the ears of many throughout the decades. Let’s examine both these devices in more depth through examples in MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail.

Throughout the essay, Dr. King counters their logic and assumption and appealing to first ethos by building his credibility as an activist and secondly logos by referencing history, religious leaders and ancient philosophers whom employed similar tactics while confronting oppression and unjust laws. He successfully employs pathos appeals, citing several examples of unpunished crimes committed against the black community and appealing to logos, while countering their criticisms of creating tensions through the unwise use and timing of his direct-action program protesting. He ends his essay triumphantly with appeals to ethos, pathos and logos by defending his extremism, condemning the clergy’s silence with racial injustice, while offering hope of inevitable change to the black community. I found it difficult to assess any weakness within this essay; however, it leaves the door wide open to controversy regarding breaking unjust laws.

The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written by Martin Luther King Jr while he was in jail. Inside of this letter, there are many rhetorical devices. A few of these devices are allusion, repetition, and metaphor. These are found many times throughout the letter.

"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radian stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty." (King Jr., p. 812) Throughout "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King Jr. Exploits phrases and ideals similar to the quote above to address the eight clergymen who questioned his radical methods. In his letter, King utilizes his credibility as a minister and a Doctor of theology, the emotions of his audiences and the (LOGOS) in an attempt to convince the clergymen

King uses his words to say they will get what they want, whether the clergy likes it or not. The clergy is in too much with their thoughts of god and religion to realize their sinful ways towards blacks.”The teachings of christ take time to come to earth.”(23). Dr. King is explaining that his people’s freedom is taking forever to come. His people’s freedom has taken long enough and it’s time to take action.”They languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policeman who view them as “dirty ni*ger lovers.”(27). King leans towards the hardships of his people so the clergymen feel for their people. The statement is an understatement of what his people went through and the clergy are savages if they have no feelings for the people that have suffered to earn their rights. Pathos is used here in the letter to develop feelings and sympathy from the clergymen to change their viewpoint on who they

Both Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, use rhetorical devices to persuade their audience to protest the government in peaceful and progressive ways. There are numerous examples of historical allusions, audience appeals, and literary devices used to make their texts clear and concise. King and Thoreau each call the populace to act against governmental bodies to cause productive, peaceful change.

Martin Luther King Jr. compassionately responds to eight criticizing clergymen in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. Refuting the opposition posed by the catholic church, King retorts in a non-confrontational manner, raising many topics to defend his nonviolent protest. King utilizes his time in jail to accurately represent the African American perspective, and the struggles that motivate them.

What would writing be like without any rhetorical devices? Would author/narrators just write straight to the point? Would there be a hook? Would people still read as much as they do now? Rhetorical devices are used to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards the topic the author is trying to make. In Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK)‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, MLK wrote a letter in response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the south. In the letter, he used rhetorical devices to persuade the eight white religious men why the black community cannot wait for change to occur, as well as address any other concerns that were addressed in the public statement. Martin Luther King Jr used many rhetorical devices in this work. Some identified are flashback;to give a brief example from his own experience, ethos; to show the people this issue is not something that he experience from the outside but he too have gone through it himself, logos; by applying to the reader’s sense of reasoning, pathos; the audience emotionally side, exposition; to

King combines the use of ethos and pathos as he compares himself and the rights of men to religious backgrounds. His first comparison is with the Apostle Paul, where Paul had “carried the gospel of Jesus Christ,” as to Kings carrying of “the gospel of freedom.” King addresses this similarity to show why he felt committed to go to Birmingham, because like Paul, he needed to respond as an aid to his people. Towards the end of Kings letter; he exemplifies courageousness in the Negro demonstrations by relating them to the actions of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they refused to follow what they believed to be unjust laws. Saying that if they are supposed heroes by going against unjust laws, why shouldn't the people see Negro demonstrators the same way? They are also God's children and by those disobedience’s, they were really showing the grace of God. These connections to religion supports their fighting against unjust laws as a divine cause.

King creates an empathetic link when he utilizes the words "When you have" (King 2) followed by grievous moments in a typical African American life. For the purpose of showing the leaders why the Negroes cannot wait any longer for civil justice. Rather it is not that simple, King chose to write this to create an empathic link between the religious leaders and the African Americans. He does this with the intention of having the leaders feel the urgency and the burning pain the oppressed race has gone through. Simply, the African American walk of life is encroached by the actions and power of whites, creating an emotional scene for the leaders. King also rejects the fallacy that the leaders created with the "Isn't this like condemning..."(King 3) anaphora. The leaders believed that the peaceful actions of the civil rights group should be condemned for they participated in violence. King felt that this statement did not make any logical sense, but instead of outright saying it, he simply repeated instances where peaceful actions were taken place, but the subject faced consequences. In fact, by comparing the situation to the Christian icon Jesus, King exposes the fallacy of the leaders. In a broader sense, the parallelism between Jesus and King is noticed. Biblically, Jesus came down to Earth from Heaven to save sinners by acting as a sacrifice and dying on the cross. On the other hand, Historically, King came to Birmingham from Atlanta to aid the Civil Rights Movement by protesting, thus sending him to jail. Both came down to save a group, but to do so both were