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Short biography of martin luther king jr
Analysis of martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail
Analysis of martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail
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Can you envision what it would have been like to be an African American in the city of Birmingham in the year 1963? Strolling down the sidewalk in the middle of town, you suddenly get that feeling where eyes from all direction are staring right through you, making you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. Seeing signs on every restaurant and store window, criticizing you by the color of your skin. When you and your family go on a countryside cruise and it is better to just sleep in your car, rather than trying to find a hotel that accepts you. Having to answer your children's questions about the segregation issue and tell them they are equal whether they are treated so or not( King 2). Martin Luther King, Jr. acted upon all of these instances with multiple nonviolent protests. King was thrown into a musty, jail cell for one …show more content…
of his protests in Birmingham. A group of white clergymen accused his movement of being "unwise and untimely." Therefore, Dr. King was not going to stand for this and he acted upon, yet again, another racist comment. In Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail," he uses many different methods to appeal to his audiences and draw them in with the use of rhetorical appeals and the tone of his letter towards his intended crowd. King's letter is effective because he convinces the audience that the idea of segregation is unlawful and that America must stop discriminating against others of this world, based on the color of their skin. Within the context of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail," he uses a balance of three rhetorical appeals. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to reach out to the intended audiences and pull them to his side from the message within the letter. The method of argumentation that stood out the most was his use of pathos, which is the use of invoking pity or sadness. King has intrigued the audience by painting pictures in their heads of what a day in a life of an African American might be similar to. On the second page in "Letter From Birmingham Jail," King uses a whole paragraph of pathos. "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean"(2)? Imagine hearing these words roll off your child's tongue and having to try and answer their question. Always feeling inferior to those around you because you are unlike them. In this corrupted country, the idea of segregation was the way to go, but King was not going to stand for it any longer. In "Letter From Birmingham Jail" King uses three different rhetorical appeals, however, the most intriguing was his use of pathos. In Michael Osborn’s “Rhetorical Distance: Letter From Birmingham Jail,” he talks about how King “uses the second person plural pronoun (“you”) invites the white reader to especially enact a ritual of identification: in effect, to cross the boundaries of race to realize what it means to be black in a racist society” (28). The use of the “you” helps the reader to feel for the black people and to have sympathy for the crude actions that we have made them suffer through.The white people reading his letter will have been put in the place of what it was like for King and his family within this time period. Osborn also talks about how the “series of suffocating images’ magnifies the longing to break out from the American prison” (28-29). Those images are what King expressed in his letter and used to draw the attention of his audiences to help the African American race escape this confined world. One of the most heartfelt examples of Martin's use of pathos is when his daughter asks him why they cannot go to funtown(2). As heartbreaking as the question is, he had to tell her that because of their skin color they do not have the same rights as a white person. Therefore, that is why King has chosen to respond to the clergymen and use his letter to draw the attention of those around the world to help join his Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr.
also intertwines his use of ethos into his “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” He is very sly at how he has constructed his letter and the way he responds to the clergymen. In Michael Osborn's essay, he mentions that the clergymen treated Dr. King with disrespect and not as an equal to them(26). King was a pastor and the President of a major Christian organization known as the SCLC ; therefore, he had expected to be named so. After having read the clergymen's letter, he knew that if he did not respond now and take a stand for society then he would run out of time and this window to respond would close (Patton 54). While in the midst of writing King's letter, he knows that it is important for him to treat the clergymen as an equal. Some say that he disrespects the clergymen but he is just trying to make his point clear that we all are equal, even though our skin color may not be the same. Within the letter King "asserted his identity and claims his seat at their table, whether welcome or not" (Osborn 26). King asserts his morals and ethic values very well into his paper and that it helps to support his credibility in his
letter. The last rhetorical appeal King has put to use in his paper is the use of logos. This appeal isn't the strongest, but it isn't the weakest either. A very strong point that King makes in his letter while using logos is about Adolf Hitler. He says that everything Hitler did in Germany was viewed as "legal". However, if you were to help a Jew or comfort them it was viewed as "illegal"(3). This phrase is very important because it backs up everything Dr. King has offered to us. If segregation is legal and it is illegal to help fight for African Americans freedoms, he is going to help them because he is willing to risk it all just for them to be treated as an equal. If King wasn't willing to risk it all, he would not have became a Civil Rights Leader, he would not have started the nonviolent protests, and he would not have went to jail to help prove a point. Most importantly, if King wasn't willing to sacrifice everything he had worked for, he would not have written "Letter From Birmingham Jail." King wanted to prove to his followers that he would not stand behind someone, that he would be a leader and stand up for what he believes in when he is challenged. Therefore, when his followers are talking about his movements and his letter he is also convincing others to be on his side of this movement because he is going to lead this country to be what we know today as a free country. Although, we can now live in a world where there is no segregation because of everything these African Americans and Dr. King went through. King refers to "eleven o'clock on Sunday morning as the most segregated hour in America" (Patton 58). Now, on a Sunday morning we can congregate through the church pews shaking hands with anyone and everyone, with smiling faces all around. King's credibility was often questioned because he had no access to a computer to type his letter, no available dictionary, however he did have people within the jail to help him edit his paper and type it for him (Patton 58). King’s rough draft was scribbled in the margins of old newspapers brought to him while he was locked up. Dr. King was a very well educated man, a pastor, and the president of a major Christian organization. The fact that he had been elected into a president position of a group, shows his worthiness and credibility. Although, some may have thought for this to be suitable enough to prove his words were worthy of their time others disagreed. They didn't quite understand how King, over any other person, was more informed on the issue concerning segregation. Dr. King, like most African Americans knew what it is like to go through a day where they have all these troubling happenings from dawn to dusk. Therefore, he is taking what he lives through, and has witnessed while protesting in other cities, to persuade and inform those around them about his movement. King is also described as an extremist, and he feels as if he should be prideful about this. Jesus Christ and Abraham Lincoln too were considered extremists(5). Therefore, If people believe the Bible, why can't they believe the words of Dr. King in his "Letter"? The system King uses to approach his audience is very appropriate based upon who he is trying to reach out to. King places one group on top of the mountain which would be the white people. He places the other group at the bottom, which is the black population. The distance between the top and the bottom of the mountain represents the privileges that the white people have and those that blacks do not (Osborne 24). King changes his tone drastically over the course of his "Letter." When he uses pathos, he is drawing empathy from his audiences, logos is making the reader contemplate what he is saying, ethos is making them question their morals and ethics based upon what information King has provided them with. Martin Luther King, Jr. also varies his depth in his vocabulary. At certain times within the "Letter" he uses more intriguing words to impress the audience. While doing this, it was important to make sure that everyone reading could comprehend what he was trying to get across to them. Overall, King's tone is very formal and effective at grasping his audience so they don't put the "Letter" down before fully reading it to its extent.
In 1963, Martin Luther King wrote a response to clergymen who criticized his actions while he was stuck in the Birmingham city jail. This letter, titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, was written on the side of a newspaper and secretly taken out of jail by King’s lawyer. The goal of this letter was to address and confront concerns that were brought up in the clergymen’s letter titled, “A Call for Unity”. In “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King asserts a strong emotional appeal on the clergymen who oppose his actions by placing guilt on them when he inserts Biblical references periodically throughout his letter.
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.
Dr. King establishes himself as many things, most importantly as a non-violent, authoritative man of God in order to identify himself as an equal to the clergymen. His religious influence supports the assertion that he has “the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state” (40). In his response to the men who so graciously wrote “A Call for Unity,” Dr. King establishes himself as a man of the Bible, as they have also identified themselves as members of the Christian church. This grants him the opportunity to summon the power of the Lord/God to support his argument, stating that blacks “will win our freedom because the sacr...
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.
The letter from Birmingham jail by Dr. Marin Luther King was written as a response of King to nine criticisms made against the Southern Christian leaders and King’s participation in demonstration in Birmingham. King handled many rhetorical devices to convince his opponents such as the white clergymen with his rights to protest, create tension for direct action and to achieve the racial justice. The devices fluctuate between Logos, Pathos and Ethos in a clever way to appeal to his audience and criticize them at the same time. King provided logical supports such as biblical figures, historical and philosophical references. In addition, he used verities of metaphors, allergy and poetic language. In my essay, I will point out some of the rhetorical devices and
“…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.
In his essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. disproves the assumptions of people that believe racism is acceptable when he compares the maltreatment of blacks to the inhumane treatment of the Jews by Hitler. King establishes a relationship with his audience by connecting on a level that is larger than the exploitation of African American's rights. He forces his readers to think about the execution of millions of Jews that was ordered by Hitler. He makes it logically apparent in his letter that just because segregation is a law, it does not mean that it is just. These strong words by King help establish a common ground between himself and the reader that forces them to think about the immorality and injustice of their decisions. His thoughts and feelings are synonymous with the suffering experienced by African Americans in America during the civil rights movement.
Black Americans needed a Martin Luther King, but above all America needed him. The significant qualities of this special man cannot be underestimated nor taken for granted. Within a span of 13 years from 1955 to his death in 1968 he was able to expound, expose, and extricate America from many wrongs. His tactics of protest involved non-violent passive resistance to racial injustice. It was the right prescription for our country, and it was right on time. Hope in America was waning on the part of many Black Americans, but Martin Luther King, Jr. provided a candle along with a light. He also provided this nation with a road map so that all people could locate and share together in the abundance of this great democracy.
King’s letter is addressed to many men of religion (Clergymen) who criticized Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) actions during their protests in the city of Birmingham. Through his letter, King expresses his disappointment about the clergymen’s criticisms, and he wants to address their concerns. King defends his right to be in Birmingham is very straightforward tone of writing. King presents a moral reason why he has the right to be present, as he says that he came to the city to fight injustice. He believes that all communities and state are related with one another. King blames the clergymen for criticizing the SCLC without trying to understand the racist causes of injustice that is being protested against. Dr. King explains his plans of organizing nonviolent action.
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed at 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?”
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written to address the public criticism he and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference received from eight clergymen. In his letter, King shows off his fiery emotion throughout his letter. However, King does not force his beliefs upon his readers. Rather, he hopes that his readers will see his perspective on the situation through an emotional appeal. If the readers are able to recognize the injustice and inequality suffered by the African American community, perhaps they can. The fourteenth and fifteenth paragraphs were a true testament to his passion and ambition for equal rights.
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.
A statement from eight white clergymen from Alabama prompted Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. This statement criticized Kings actions of non-violent protests against racial segregation and the injustice of unequal civil rights in America (Carpenter elt al.). The eight clergymen considered Birmingham to be “their” town and King was disrupting the “Law and Order and Common Sense” established in coping with racial issues in Alabama during this time (Carpenter elt al. par 1). These clergymen considered King an “outsider” and describe his actions as “unwise and untimely” (Carpenter elt al. par 3). This statement suggests that there is an appropriate time to create equality among all Americans. To analyze the power strategizes of Martin Luther King’s Letter we must understand this letter was written from a jail cell, where King a black man, was held for protesting for racial equality. Furthermore, King began writing his letter among the margins of the newspaper’s article that contained the clergymen’s statement (King Institute).
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an argumentative persuasive essay, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963. King had written this letter to address and respond to the criticism made by the white clergymen. The letter was an approach to end racism and hatred in a non-violent manner. The non-violent movement was organized by King and his pro-black organization called “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference”.