Martin Luther King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail because he and others were protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. While sitting in jail he received a letter from 8 white clergymen stating that his methods were unwise and untimely. So Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took it upon his self to reply to the fellow men explaining his vision and beliefs to achieve his goals in Birmingham.

In this letter, Martin Luther King is trying to convince a large majority of people that segregation has a negative impact on the community and trying to report the racial difference that African Americans are suffering in the United States. For this purpose, Martin Luther King Jr mainly uses logic and emotion to describe the agony of African-American people who have to live in a racist society. Throughout the letter he showed eloquence and knowledge of the issues of the colored people. Martin Luther King mainly uses the logic and the emotion in his letter, but he also makes use of ethics to illustrate some problems of that society. Through the use of these resources he was able to explain to the world the segregation that African American people were living at that

An unjust law is “a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” So any law that degrades human personality is unjust. King was put into jail for protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. Everything in Alabama was segregated, whether in schools, bathrooms, churches, or buses the blacks were always separated from the whites. Blacks faced a lot of discrimination during that time and they went about trying to solve this injustice the nonviolent way by protesting.

He begins to bring in his personal experiences as he faces racism within America with the intro into part two. The title of, “The Harlem Ghetto” depicts Harlem of being claustrophobic and being an expensive place to live at. Baldwin switches his topic of the location of Harlem towards Negro leaders. James Baldwin describes Negro leaders as they try to help their communities, but they do not attack the bigger issues within the Black communities. Baldwin then acknowledges that they majority of leaders cannot make it into congress due to racism.

Although emotions were predominant in his speech, logic and credibility were key characteristics in getting his key idea across; government had to make a change regarding the rights of all African Americans in the country. An example of logos in his speech can be recognized in the quote, “America has given the negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” He is using logic to reason. He knows everyone listening understands money and can relate to being handed a bad check, therefor he uses this metaphor to describe the broken promises of American equal rights to all men. Ethos and logos are both extremely significant in the making and preaching of Martin Luther Kings’ speech but they are nowhere near as effective as pathos when in hopes of connecting with the

King believed that if he could just go to Birmingham, and protest non-violently, that he could make a difference. On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned, in Birmingham, for protesting the civil rights of Black Americans. While in jail, he began writing a letter addressing the clergymen. His main audience in writing this letter was to the eight clergymen who criticized his actions and also the majority of the population as well. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, argues that injustice

In “The Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther king uses logos and allusion throughout his writing to enhance his argument for civil obedience. In kings letter he states “Birmingham is probably the most segregated city in the United States” on page one. The strong word, most, really emphasizes his point for his readers to understand what he is trying to say. This fact of Birmingham being the most segregated makes the reader think just how bad things have gotten in their city. It really makes them stop and think.

Ty’ Keylah White Ms. Edwina Mosby English Composition I October 31, 2017 Rhetorical Analysis: Letter from Birmingham Jail Summary/Assessment: In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is responding to a few white religious leaders who stated that his nonviolent reveal against segregation was “unwise and untimely” (1). Dr. King had to be really upset at the clergymen because he rarely acknowledges criticism of his work. He states that since they brought up “outsiders coming in”, meaning that they went to the city of Birmingham to start a conflict.

Douglass claimed that although slavery was abolished, blacks were living under a different kind of slavery after the Civil war. Discrimination and racism was prominent and there were few laws enforced. “So long as discriminatory laws ensured defacto white control over Southern blacks, then ‘slavery by yet another name’ persisted. ‘Slavery is not abolished,’ he contended, ‘until the black man has the ballot’ with which to defend his interests and freedom.” (Howard-Pitney 485).

The Appeal pressed the opponent movement in a more fundamental direction. In 1830, when the Appeal was put out, more than fifty Negro abolitionist groups already occurred across the country. And David Walker’s call for the instant elimination of slavery vibrated strongly with many Blacks. The David Walker’s Appeal also influenced the thinking of leading white opponents who formed

Martin Luther King Junior was the leader of several peaceful protests against the segregation of African American people in the American South. In his Letter form a Birmingham Jail, King responds to the eight clergymen who published an open letter in the local newspaper entitled A call to Unity that ultimately criticized King’s antics directly. King’s powerful yet eloquent use of different literary techniques, especially Aristotle’s persuasive appeals of ethos, pathos and logos, clearly delivers a potent message to his audience. The persuasive appeal logos, according to Aristotle, appeals to a reader’s sense of reason.

On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. while confined in the Birmingham City Jail wrote a letter to the clergymen whom disapproved of his actions by calling him and other nonconformists “outsiders coming in”. During the civil rights movement the city of Birmingham was known to be one of the most segregated city in the United States. The City of Birmingham was known for its police brutality against blacks. They’re where also many unsolved cases such as bombing of homes and churches occupied by blacks. Kings letter was an opportunity for him to express the purpose behind the nonviolent campaign.

It became clear that tragedy was not unique to my family. There are thousands of other Black American families that deal with the pain of having a loved one in our criminal justice system, mostly for nonviolent crimes. From this academic pursuit, I developed a lens of consciousness that allows me to see the manifestations of racism in our legal

Dr. King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” goes in to detail about the injustice that existed on the streets of America in the 1960s, and it can still be used now to discuss the injustice on the streets today. King discusses how unjust laws were made to broken (such as with Hitler and the Jewish population and the Hungarian Freedom Fighters), and that no progress would ever be made if actions weren’t taken immediately. Today, issues with police brutality and racism against immigrants (“They are taking our jobs!” is a line often used by the white population of America when talking about jobs they would never consider applying for anyway) is at an all-time high, and Dr. King’s letter can be applied to the current situation: action must be taken immediately.

King also mention that he came to Birmingham, because there was injustice in Birmingham. Unjust in my mind is when something isn’t agreed upon or isn’t peaceful. In the world of today somethings are injustice the killings of whites and blacks there’s peace, but no peace. When i say that black people have their freedom, but are we safe think about the Charleston murder where nine innocent people died in church or the demanding and physical act of a police man when they pull a white man over versus a black man. As Dr. King stated individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as, rein hold Niebuhr has reminded us, group tend to be more immoral then individuals.