Ethos Pathos Logos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

The Storms Of Injustice “...Ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky” (King 582). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was a prominent figure for the civil rights movement, serving as one of the figureheads in the fight for justice in the south. On April 16, 1963, King was imprisoned in Birmingham jail based on a peaceful protest he had participated in against the unconstitutional bans on race mixing in places like schools, hospitals, and trains. When King was in jail, he wrote a response, titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to concerns sent in by white clergymen surrounding his recent activities which they called “unwise and untimely.” Throughout the letter, King often uses the three rhetorical appeals, Pathos, Ethos, and Logos.

Logos is the use of facts and logic, often appealing to a person’s intellect and mind. King uses logos to sway the clergymen to his side of the argument surrounding racial injustice. For instance, King compares America to other nations to show how behind America is in the fight for equality: “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (King 582). This is a clear instance of King using logic and reasoning to persuade the clergymen. Another example of King using logos is when he notes that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This shows usage of philosophy to provoke thought from the