Letter From Birmingham Jail Ethos Pathos Logos

During the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were often oppressed and denied their constitutional rights, such as the right to protest. A prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a powerful and persuasive writer and speaker. King delivered the famous speech, “I Have a Dream” during the march for freedom on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He also wrote, “Letter From Birmingham Jail” while he was jailed for protests. King wrote his famous letter in the margins of a newspaper in response to eight white clergymen who criticized his work. In both of these texts, King uses pathos, emotional appeal, and logos, logical appeal, in different ways throughout his works in order to persuade his audience.

This quote is an example of logos, because it compares the African American people’s experience to cashing a bad check, which is a logical comparison. In addition,"We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote”(King page 263 paragraph 13). This is another example of logos, because he uses facts to appeal to the reader and to convince them to join the Civil Right Movement. His usage of logos in these quotes are written to rally the reader and let them know of their