Martin Luther King, the most well-known civil rights activist and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 16, 1963. He was arrested for protesting without a license. Martin Luther King wrote a letter while in jail in response to the clergyman saying that he no longer wanted to sit and wait to be heard. While writing his letter, Martin Luther King uses rhetorical devices, and sources to develop his argument that coming to Birmingham is not "unwise and untimely." Martin Luther King is establishing his credit. King states, "I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia." This means he has an organization that works in every state in the South. This illustrates how he is not an outsider due to the fact Alabama is in the south and it is wise that he does something as the president. King writes, "Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid." He compares going to Birmingham to help remove injustice to Paul helping others in the Bible. King explains why he went to Birmingham to stop …show more content…
Martin Luther King Jr. represents the claim that the need for a nonviolent direct action to fight against injustice. King wrote "It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire." This illustrates pathos by showing how the Christians decided to fight against unjust laws of the Roman Empire instead of standing by capitulating to them. With this in mind, King utilizes the Christians as an example of why they should fight for justice. King implies just as there was a need for the Christians to fight against unjust laws, they were under a feud with the injustice they were facing. King argues they must go up against the
In his "Letter," Martin Luther King Jr.'s ability to effectively use pathos, or to appeal to the emotions of his audiences, is evident in a variety of places. More particularly in paragraph fourteen, King demonstrates his ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists, invoke empathy in the hearts of white moderates, and create compassion in the minds of the eight clergyman to which the "Letter" is directed.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a catalogue of personal experiences in order to appeal to the emotions of the reader, also called pathos, by utilizing concrete language, semicolons, and lengthy sentences. He not only entices the emotions of the fellow clergymen he is addressing, but also society in general, attempting to reveal the true situation of the oppressed Negroes during this time in the Civil Rights Movement.
In Martin Luther King Junior's Letter from Birmingham Jail, King responds to a public statement made by eight Alabama clergymen about African Americans being too extreme and their actions untimely. In this public statement, made on the twelfth of April, 1963, the clergymen also commended the police on their control of the situation. Four days later, King writes a letter showing his opinion on the statements while he sits in the Birmingham jail for parading without a permit. King carefully uses rhetorical devices to force the clergymen to realize that they are the ones responsible for teaching morals. King uses figurative language to create pathos in his audience of Alabama Clergymen
Argumentation has followed humans from the dawn of time as a way for us to express our ideas and for our ideas to be heard. People naturally obtain the knowledge to persuade others, either backing their opinions by fact or touching others emotionally, from growing up and through their own experiences in life. We can be persuaded by a numerous amounts of different factors pertaining to the argument. There are four different types of strategies in which an argument can be presented and make the argument effective. Martin Luther King is a key example of the utilization of the strategies as he wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Nicholas Carr also portrays the strategies with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Both authors perfectly
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across.
In the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to an article by eight clergymen, in which he explains the racial injustice in Birmingham, and reasons why King's organization is protesting for Civil Rights. He introduces himself and his actions at the beginning of his letter. He states that the purpose of his direct action protest is to open the door for negotiation on the Civil Rights. He tries to convince his audience by providing evidence in order to gain his audience to be involved in his movement and support him. He also highlights police actions against nonviolent Negros and crimes against humanity in Birmingham city jail.
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was written to answer a critical "Call For Unity" by a group of clergymen in Birmingham. The clergymen were critical of King for "interloping" in the activities of their city. Dr. King said that he had every right to fight unfairness in the country that he lived in. The letter he wrote, in response to the "Call for Unity", and a statement that he would battle racial inequality wherever it was. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was the main point in his life. In this letter, he perfectly described his reasons why he felt this way, appealing to logic, emotion, and ethics.
The United States civil rights movement was a constant battle for the rights and freedom of African Americans. Martin Luther king Jr., the leader of the civil right movement, was hosting a non-violent protest in Birmingham city. However, the protest did not go as planned and King was arrested for agitating the public. Many fellow white clergymen were angered and upset over the “Ungodly” act. As a result,the Clergymen wrote a statement that claimed Martin Luther King Jr. to be an extremist. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to the clergymen’s statement while residing in Birmingham jail by writing a letter using the ethical, emotional, and logical appeals to defend his actions.
King had gained respect from some audience because of his soft tone. He established his ethos to readers, especially to the white, by saying, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state” (King, Martin Luther, Jr.). To connect his idea to the real world, he used the image of Apostle Paul left the village to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ as it’s his duty to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his hometown.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader who grew up in a middle class family and was well educated. King was always against violence, even thru his entire ministry. He believed in an integrated society between blacks and whites in one American society based upon the promises of the founding fathers of American that all men were created equal and had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Even though, he was physically and verbally attacked he always stood his ground and never fought with violence. While in jail for 8 days Martin Luther King Jr. compose “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The letter was evidently a response to a letter that recently ran in the local newspapers by the Birmingham Clergy. Which had claimed that the protesters were “unwise and untimely”. However, Dr. King chose to express himself in writing instead of violence, by replying “Seldom, ...
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed towards him in a very skillful and well thought out manner. These issues came from, “A Call For Unity”, which was a letter published by eight local clergymen expressing their feelings about what Dr. King was doing. One concern in particular that King did an outstanding job of confronting was that of the clergymen’s anxiety about him breaking the law. King addresses the question of, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” by clarifying that there are just and unjust laws. He also goes on to explain the difference between the two, the effect of unjust laws on the people that they are aimed towards, as
The mighty river flows through the mountains with liquidity and nurture providing life for all those who wish to take a sip from it. Yet the river is powerful in its own force destroying even the largest rocks, crumbling them into small pieces. People may be able to stop the river for a short time or even dry it up but the water always comes back in one form or another, every dam is bound to fail. Some people have been able to harness the power of the river, redirecting the mighty water making it flow in constructive ways. Similar to the river, language is influential. Its true power is not seen by the naked eye but by those who study it, those who use it as their ally in a war of linguistics. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, Birmingham City Jail he is able to use all three rhetorical appeals to prove that demonstrations lead to negotiations and benefit for both sides of an argument.
In 1963, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South, so civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. brought his campaign of nonviolent resistance to Birmingham. After leading a demonstration on April 12, 1963, King was arrested for violating demonstration ordinances. Shortly after, eight white clergymen in Birmingham sent out a public statement claiming that although they support desegregation, they advise against anymore protests advocated by King, stating that the “demonstrations are unwise and untimely” (Carpenter et al,). While in jail, King took an opportunity to continue his campaign by responding to these eight white clergymen. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King uses religious and philosophical allusions to
Martin Luther King was a huge figure in the civil rights movements, while protesting a non-violent protest he was arrested and taken to Birmingham Jail. He is writing to his clergymen, describing the situation he is in. King says “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance in [Reading the American Past] edited by Michael Johnson (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2012), 255. King goes on to describe how Birmingham is a very segregated place with high police brutality and the most unsolved cases on bombing on negro’s houses. The letter King writes demonstrates that times for African Americans are very poor and need to improve. King relates African Americans to “Christian who were willing to face hungry lions and chopping blocks before submitting to laws of the Roman Empire” (Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance, 257). King ends his letter by asking for the negroes who do these nonviolent protests to be recognized for their
In 1963, living in Birmingham, Alabama was tough to live in due to how segregated it was. Everything from businesses, diners, libraries, churches, and even bathrooms were segregated. Martin L. King went to Birmingham because he was called by affiliates from the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights contacted him in aiding them on a nonviolent direct action program. He wanted to help because of the injustices there and was said that anything unjust in Birmingham ultimately affects everyone. King and others paraded around Birmingham protesting against this when he was arrested for doing so after a court ordered that Martin L. King could not protest in that area. While in jail, he wrote a letter that later becomes a big part of history during the struggles of segregation.