Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

In April 1963, the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for leading anti-segregation protests. His" Letter from Birmingham Jail," is an accessible letter to eight white clergymen from Alabama. In it, King responds to a statement by these clergymen that communicate their belief that the struggle against segregation should be fought in the courts and not in the streets. Throughout the essay, he uses three main rhetorical devices: parallelism, allusions, and logos. These three devices help further his argument against the eight clergymen, that protesters have the noble obligation to stand up against unfair laws in a cordial manner. The use of parallelism in King’s letter helps provide order, structure, and balance. He uses this to lay out many different ways of expressing the same thought or idea without coming out as repeating himself. “I doubt you would have so warmly commended the

I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail…” His purpose of this paragraph is to bring attention to how they praise the Birmingham Police for preventing violence; but then asks the clergymen if they would have applauded the police force if they knew the despicable things they do to the “unarmed, nonviolent Negroes.” He uses another example of parallelism in paragraph fourteen when talking about the rights the African Americans have been waiting for and why they don’t want to wait anymore. “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when