Compare And Contrast Mlk Letter To Birmingham Jail

Imagine you’re living back in 1963, it’s the year of change, for the better. There’s a man, Martin Luther King Jr., who is one of the most prominent figures in the Civil Rights movements. He has two famous works, First, the Letter from Birmingham Jail. from back in August; a powerful response King gave after reading the criticisms of the clergymen of Birmingham. Second, there is the “I Have a Dream” speech from The March on Washington. Even though these two works are similar, their target audience were very different, thus, the way he talks and the writing tactics he uses are bound to be different.

Let’s start simple, there are two main parts of persuasive appeal that Dr. King uses are Logos and Pathos. Logos(log) is a Logical appeal, while Pathos(path) is appeal relating to emotion. In his “Letter to Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King uses more Logos as he responds to the Clergymen. While in his “I Have a Dream” Speech, he uses more Pathos to appeal to the emotions to the thousands of protesters at the Lincoln Memorial.

In his quote “Anyone who lives inside the U.S. can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds”(MLK 272) is a use of Pathos. It does not use logical backings, rather, it relies on the ideology of everyone being equal and having some sort of bond due to the fact they are all citizens of the U.S. However one way he uses Logos is: “I am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have Organizational ties here” (MLK 272). He draws attention to the fact that he was here on professional means alone, when responding to criticism, to disprove or nullify anything they might’ve had to say about his