On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” This letter was intended to be a response to the eight clergymen of Alabama, who wrote a response concerning King, and the racial issues going on in Birmingham. The response of the eight clergymen was a way to criticize King and the Negro community for basically taking action. Referring to King’s efforts as “unwise and untimely.” Meaning, that it was not a convenient time to start protesting around town and getting attention. Meaning, stop trying to change how things work, and just wait for it. Key word, “wait.” That’s precisely what King did not want to do, he grew tired of hearing that four letter word his whole life, he and many others wanted to see change …show more content…
This could have been King’s way of capturing the emotional side of the audience. The use of Aristotle’s framework helps make this section of “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” that much stronger. The three rhetorical appeals are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos having to do with the evidence, pathos has to deal with the audience’s emotions, and logos deals with the logic of the audience. Throughout this section of the letter, King relies on the pathos as the rhetorical appeal. He bases this section around the audience’s sense of emotions, which helps strengthen King’s …show more content…
After reading the letter it was clear to see that the main response went to the clergymen, yet there is a wider range of audiences that this letter was being directed to. The “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” was directed to everyone, if they were from the white or black community it was being directed towards them. It responded to the black community by retelling their experiences in the letter, as a reminder that they no more should have to wait for justice. The way it responded to the white community was by making them see all the hard times that an average Negro must go through just because people believe that the color of someone’s skin defines them, and their
Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at it’s peak in the South. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In response to King’s peaceful protesting, the white community viewed “[his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist,” and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive.
In response to the "Letter From Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. it is an example of how King has been such an influence on the people of this country. Through his powerful words, the reader can see what a difference he has made in history. He wrote this letter to other clergy men while sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham Al, being punished because of following his beliefs. In his letter, he expresses his concerns and explains his actions, because he felt they should be a unified front.
Letter From a Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this Open Letter on April 16, 1963, after he was arrested for protesting without a permit in Birmingham, Alabama. He was protesting peacefully, until a group o white people made it a big deal, which made Dr. King and other protesters in jail. He wrote this letter as a response to fellow clergyman who considered his actions “unwise and untimely”. The predominate reason of this letter is justify his presence in Birmingham, which is that he is trying to change segregation as social justice and his use of civil disobedience as an instrument of freedom. He is trying to convey his readers about his injustice in Birmingham and how it is our right and responsibility as a human being
Four days after the Clergymen made their statement Martin Luther King Jr. felt compelled to act upon their grievances by replying with a letter titled “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” while he was incarcerated on account of the protests. King
2.4 Rhetorical Analysis In April of 1963, while incarcerated in Birmingham City jail, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an influential letter defending his anti-segregation protests. King had been arrested while participating in a peaceful anti-segregation march, although several local religious groups counted on King for support. Since King’s arrest, he had time to think deeply about the situation; therefore, he decides to reply back to the Alabama clergymen. Who had criticize Martin Luther King because he was simply doing something that was right and violence was not needed for King.
Essay #2: Argumentative Analysis Martin Luther King Jr. introduced a very controversial argument about why he believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”(264). In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stated that justice is never given by the oppressor and the reason why his protests were very relevant and wise was because the issues needed to be addressed right then and not later. Moving along throughout his entire letter his primary thesis seemed to be that if the people wanted to be free from racial injustice they needed to participate in nonviolent protests. Given his setting and atmosphere, MLK did an extremely impressive job of using kairos and other rhetorical techniques in his piece.
Upon being imprisoned for marching Dr Martin Luther King wrote a letter to the fellow clergymen of Birmingham, addressing his reasons as to why he committed his “crime”, This letter was widely known as “The Letter of Birmingham”. This letter was very influential and paramount to the cause of civil rights as it spurred up future events that would play essential roles in ending racial segregation in America. Throughout his whole letter, King used Ethos, logos, and pathos to firmly get his message across while adding rhetorical devices such as repetition, metaphors, and biblical references.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” it can easily be argued that King used many rhetorical devices such as anaphora and tone in order to further persuade his audience to take action on behalf of the Civil Rights movement. Through copious examples, the reader is presented with King’s effort to use repetition in order to drive his point as well as being presented with the changing tone of his writing which allows the reader to experience a shift in emotions and urgency throughout the
Rhetorical Strategies: Letter from Birmingham In 1963, Birmingham Alabama was a place where African Americans struggled for equal rights. From segregation to discrimination, Birmingham consisted of all many injustice activities which involved civil rights. In 1963, Martin Luther King was arrested from protesting the treatment of African Americans.
JoAnna Guzman AP English Period 4 Mrs. Solis 5 February 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. letter “ Letter from Birmingham Jail” was a response to eight Alabama clergymen of 1963. The clergymen had accused King of being an “outsider” and interfering with the racial issues of the community of Birmingham. When writing in response to the eight clergymen from Alabama Martin Luther King Jr. uses the rhetorical device of historical and biblical allusions.
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail because of a peaceful protest, protesting treatments of blacks in Birmingham. Before the protest a court ordered that protests couldn’t be held in Birmingham. While being held in Birmingham, King wrote what came to be known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Not even King himself could predict how much of an impact this letter would have on the Civil Rights Movement. In the letter kind defended Kings beliefs on Nonviolent Protests, King also counters the accusations of him breaking laws by categorizing segregation laws into just and unjust laws. King uses this principle to help persuade others to join him in his acts of civil disobedience.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of the demonstration was to bring awareness and end to racial disparity in Birmingham. Later that night, King and his followers were detained by city authorities. While in custody, King wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter voiced out his disappointment in the criticisms, and oppositions that the general public and clergy peers obtained.
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
Jenil Patel Mr. Harper English 1102 29 August 2017 Summary and Analysis of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. writes to Clergymen in response to their open letter criticizing him and his Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. In this letter, King tells the clergymen that he is upset about what they said and wishes to address them one by one.
To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of King’s ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. To this day, King’s speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in