Rhetorical Analysis Of A Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Imagine being known as the most racist town. 1963 Birmingham became the center of discrimination and racial protests when the Civil Rights Movement gained more traction. Eight white clergymen characterized Birmingham as in a state of disorder in numerous letters, falsely describing vicious onslaughts of disruptive demonstrations led by protesting black citizens. In reality, the colored people of Birmingham peacefully protested for their rights and to desegregate the land. Martin Luther King Jr., an avid freedom fighter from Atlanta, heard the warped perspectives of the clergymen and wrote against them in his written message, “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”. Through a disappointed and urgent tone, King alluded to and drew parallels between his …show more content…

In doing so, King compelled the readers of his letter to empathize with their bleak lives and to properly describe the standing racism. To further detail the discrimination in Birmingham, King also applied the use of metaphors to juxtapose the crude difference in living between colored and Caucasian people. He stated, “...we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood,” (King 2). King emphasized the importance of nonviolence and how their protests do not stray from that stagnant characteristic. The “dark depths of prejudice” represent the deep-rooted inequalities and social injustice and separations in the city that torment society, while the “majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood” characterize the value and longing for equality among all. The metaphor functions to represent the sheer difference in living conditions and how favorable basic equality may seem to colored people at the

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