Marin Luther King Jr. intentionally appeals to his audiences from an emotional standpoint to convince them to join his anti-racist movement in his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. I. Intro A. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for many ideals in America during the American civil rights movement. B. He saw the unjust with his own eyes having grown up living in the segregated south. C. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia into the black middle class family of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Christine Williams, and was their second child and first son. D. Being looked down upon because of his skin color was never something King was willingly going to accept. E. Marin Luther King Jr. intentionally appeals to his audiences from …show more content…
an emotional standpoint to convince them to join his anti-racist movement in his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from a Birmingham jail”. II. “I Have a Dream” A. "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity" 1. All Americans, black and white, can relate to the obvious reference to one of our country’s greatest leaders’ speech. This is how King captures his audience making them listen to his speech about the injustice being done to his people B. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." 1. King obviously is appealing emotionally to the people by referencing children and how they are affected by the cruel acts. People often show more pity to children then they would to king himself being a grown man. C. "In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check" 1. King takes the idea of the unpaid check, which is an injustice if it were done to any American, and he then ends with the idea that the unpaid debt can be fixed, that the country can make its promise good and fulfill the dream. III.
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” A. “…our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us” 1. King is forcing the reader of his letter to feel the disparity that so often has been felt by the African Americans. In this line he has the reader on his side out f sympathy even if they disagree with him on the issue of segregation. B. “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 the depressing cloud of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people” 1. This could be perhaps one of King’s greatest emotional appeals to the reader. He is showing the mistreatment of his family and this stirs up feelings of anger or fear towards the situation and King is able to gain readers on his side from this. C. “Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of
robbery?” 1. This appeal to emotion is different then the other examples given. In this appeal King is looking to have the reader feel that the legal system is the one doing the wrong. That the country that they live in has somehow failed them. IV. Conclusion A. Emotion is something every American has and they are all able to connect with what King is saying because emotion is on the inside and the color of a person skin has no effect on it. B. To convince people to join his side of the civil right movement, Martin Luther King Jr. appeals to his audiences emotions in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream” speech.
While in jail, Martin Luther King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of Dr. King’s longest letters. This letter talked about about why some laws should and be broken and why there was such a need for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King wrote “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity”. This quote is important to the Civil Rights Movement because it emphasizes how many black brothers and sisters were being drowned, beaten, and hated purely on the color of their skin. They were being segregated, one example being “Funtown”, an amusement park for the white children only, Dr. King demanded this to stop. Alongside writing about the Civil Rights Movement, Dr.
King gets his point across, that segregation is unfair and morally not right, and that man has a responsibility to act against unjust laws, by using many different strategies throughout the letter. He uses logos, pathos, and ethos to do so. While using these devices he shows emotion, gives logic to his reasoning’s and gives credibility as well. First and foremost, King calmly responded to the statement from the clergymen that his non-violent direct action was “unwise and untimely”. King logically does so by describing the situation where the negro leaders tried many times to negotiate with the city fathers to remove racial barriers, but the promises never held true.
Dr.King recognizes Rosa Parks,Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus Christ for their actions in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. Dr.King considers those people as heroes, because they meet his standard for heroism. The standard to be a hero to Dr.King is believe in themself, if they fall and get back up,and care for others.
This letter was primarily written towards the clergymen, but is viewed by the the entire nation. King was sent to jail for parading around town without a permit. The eight days spent in jail allowed him to develop this letter to refute the clergymen. In his letter, King’s heart and soul was poured into this letter which can be seen through the length and the way he articulated himself towards the issue of segregation and racial injustice.
“…When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters…” –Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Over the years, many groups of people have been denied basic human rights just based on simple things such as gender or race. These acts go against the UDHR, or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR is a document of the equal and inalienable rights/freedoms all people are born with. One statement from the UDHR that was disregarded is the right to an equal education. An example from not too long ago is the story of Malala Yousafzai who was shot for trying to get an education because she is a girl. Article 26 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to an education…”
Ashley Sanchez 29659103 Analysis Essay Oppression is defined by the act of subjugating a people and state through means of force- a universal theme explored in both Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse and Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Martin Luther King Jr (Webster). How can one achieve what they term as the ‘good life’ under oppression and is it necessarily worth the consequences that can result from said search? Hobson’s Choice explores the difficulty of finding a good life under the oppression of a father, and how that quest can result in a happier life. Letter from Birmingham Jail tackles a more defined term of subjugation and the danger of finding a ‘good life’ compared to safety and unhappiness under oppression. Ultimately, the search for a good life is derived from the struggle of rising above one’s oppressor, with the personal satisfaction of searching for the good life outweighing the consequences that may arise.
Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” He inspired Americans to stand up for our country and fight for equal rights. He believed in fighting for what he thought was right and for standing up for our country. He presented his true thoughts and stood proud on those thoughts through everything, and he always believed in having equal rights for the people of our nation. Martin Luther King Jr utilized figurative language through metaphor and analogy in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to passionately engage the crowd to stand up with him and to raise the public attention to end segregation in our country.
King explained that, even though the laws had granted equal rights to all black people, the white supremacy wasn’t changed just by these acts. To most white people, civil rights movements, only made them realized that how cruel they did to those black people and they should treat them with some decent, but never really led them to think that Black American was as equal as themselves. He also addressed that this dominant ideology led to many structural obstacles, which impeded the implementation of those legislations in almost every structure of life, including the economic market, educational institution and public services. In Education, even many years after the Supreme Court decision on abolishing school segregation, there only a few integration schools existed. The segregated elementary schools received fewer fund and were in the harsher condition and “one-twentieth as many African American as whites attend college, and half of these are in ill-equipped Southern institution”(Reader, p.p.186). In labor market, most of employed Black American were worked in menial jobs and received lower wages even though they did the same works. This racism had already rooted in whole social structures that cannot just be solved by
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
King writes the letter to defend his organization's actions and the letter is also an appeal to the people, both the white and black American society, the social, political, and religious community, and the whole of American society to encourage desegregation and encourage solidarity and equality among all Americans, with no stratifications according to racial differences. King's letter from Birmingham Jail addresses the American society, particularly the political and religious community of the American society.
Prejudice is a cancer that spreads hate among its perpetrators and victims alike. In 1930 Langston Hughes penned the novel, Not Without Laughter. This powerful story, written from the perspective of an African-American boy named James “Sandy” Rodgers, begins in the early 1900’s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas. Through the eyes of young Sandy, we see the devastating impact of racism on his family and those they are close to. We also see how the generations of abuse by whites caused a divide within the black community. Among, and even within, black families there were several social classes that seemed to hinge on seeking equality through gaining the approval of whites. The class someone belonged to was determined by the color of their skin, the type of church one attended, their level of education, and where an individual was able to find work.
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
...s speech made an immense impact on the injustices of segregation and discrimination against people.
In his speech, he proclaimed a free and better nation of equality and that both races, the blacks and the whites, should join together to achieve common ground and to support each other instead of fighting against one another. King’s vision is that all people should be judged by their “personality and character and not by their color of skin”(‘I Have a Dream”). All points he made in his speech were so strong that lots of people were interested in his thoughts. He dreamed of a land where the blacks could vote and have a reason to vote and where every citizen would be treated the same and with the same justice. He felt that all Americans should be equal and that they should forget about injustice and segregation. He wanted America to know what the problems were and wanted to point out the way to resolve these problems.
American made life and liberty especially difficult for one certain race. That seems asinine to say in American culture today as we, as Americans have learned from our past errors and seen the negative in our ways. We, as people corrected a major defect, a flaw so to say in the life of a American but, back in that time, not even seventy years ago, We, as people were taught a different view of image for African Americans. The pursuit of happiness was non-existent for some African Americans. Racism ate the fabric of the goal for them. Crippling the right to enjoy freedoms that other races seemed to enjoy. The American culture need to hear the thoughts and expressions of the Kings Speech to take a look in the eyes of the African American people. King quoted “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment”. The urgency was the fact Americans still looked down upon a race that had every god given right to be in the country than any other citizen born. It was time for a