Ethos Pathos Logos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Unlike many great civil right leaders that tried to end segregation, Martin Luther King did not just talk about the problem that they were facing in his speeches or letters. He included well thought throughout plans that will help solve the problems peacefully and he actually did get some things done from leading the African American civil right movement. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King uses valid historical context and figures to make his point. He also uses pathos, logos and ethos to affectively support his argument that what he was doing was just. The letter was written in April 1963. During that time, African Americans were fighting for equal rights and there were a lot of civil right movements and many civil right movement leaders with different ideas on how to fix the injustice but they all had the same goal, which was to end segregation. A group of “white moderates” from the South commented that the protests that Martin Luther King lead were “unwise and untimely”. We can see that it really vexed Martin

The point of a non-violent protest is to “…create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” (King). Its goal is to force attention on the problem. It ultimately gives to the community no other choice but to face the problem and try to fix it. What Martin Luther King wanted was for it to gain attention so that they will be able to negotiate with “white moderates” and agree on a common ground. He did that to be able to negotiate which was his second step but it did not work. He felt it was necessary to create “nonviolent tension” to be able to overcome the problem. To evoke a tension that will allow them to negotiate and then they will find a solution together. He took Socrates, the Greek philosopher, as an example to explain why he thinks that way about nonviolent