Pathos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

In 1963, King was arrested for participating in a march because no parade permit had been issued by city officials. While in jail, he responded to a letter published in a city newspaper from eight clergymen called “A Call for Unity.” Martin Luther King's “Letter from Birmingham” Jail is part of civil rights history and an astonishing piece of well-written literature. It perfectly embraces the structure and analysis of the rhetorical triangle. The letter was to address the racial issues at the moment in Birmingham to give his response to the public.

In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was held in prison for his actions to have the African American activist movement parade in the city of Birmingham even though he had no permit. The eight Clergymen wrote King a letter stating that what he did was wrong and why it was “unwise and untimely” (Alvarado 174). While being wrongly imprisoned King wrote back stating why he took the actions that he did to convince the town of Birmingham and the nation to stand up segregation. In the letter, King tries to persuade the Clergymen to see that what he did was right and needed while also defending his actions. King went to Birmingham on April 12, 1963 to protest against the cruel mistreatment of African Americans in the city of Birmingham.

King also claims to initiate change individuals must break "unjust" laws. In support of his argument, King provides a sufficient amount of reasonable and credible evidence for his audience. First, King addresses the Clergymen's concerns against "outsiders" with cogent and adequate support. He explains his "organizational ties" in Birmingham, and how he was "invited" there.

Letter From Birmingham Jail In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for leading a nonviolent protest against Jim Crow Laws in Birmingham, Alabama. While in his jail cell, King wrote a letter to the Alabama clergymen defending and explaining his reason for nonviolent protesting and his involvement in protests outside his own town. Martin Luther King Jr. uses several literary devices such as, pathos, allusions, and parallelism to address the clergymen about nonviolent protesting, injustice within communities and the nation, and his disappointment in the church.

After the eight clergymen released a public statement directed towards King’s “extreme” leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, King decided to respond in his letter. He used a variety of allusions, targeting scholars, history, and, directed closest to the audience, the bible: “Was not Jesus an extremist…” (page 269). Because the eight clergymen consider themselves men of God, King alludes to Jesus’s extremes. If the clergymen rejoice and respect Jesus’s duties as an extremist, planning to insult King’s efforts backfired: King used the slander to his advantage, building ethos of himself as a man of God. Constructing more credibility, King writes, “...just as the Apostle Paul left his village...and carried out the gospel of Jesus Christ… so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my hometown.”

The United States of America was not always as free as it claimed to be. For instance, black people were once subject to segregation and discrimination. As the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to respond to his fellow clergymen and their statements that criticized the demonstrations that put him in the jail cell he was writing from. All in all, King’s letter sheds light on the struggles against racial inequality through the persuasive styles of ethos, pathos, and logos. Judging from his letter from Birmingham jail, it is obvious that Martin Luther King Jr. is living in a time of racial inequality and discrimination.

In reaction to the chaos, eight Alabama clergymen published a public statement asking for the citizens of both races to remain peaceful and live together in an orderly manner. When Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist from Atlanta, Georgia who was currently in the Birmingham City Jail for parading without a permit, saw this letter from the clergymen, he sent a reply in which he addressed the flaws in their argument and explained his reasoning for being in Birmingham. The world we live in today would not be possible if it were not for the determination and passion of Civil Rights activists like him. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. appeals to the emotions of multiple audiences of 1963, as well as current audiences of 2014, by using meticulous diction, repetition, and vivid imagery to demonstrate his passion for the movement

It was 1963, a time of deep segregation and prevalent racism in America, especially in Birmingham, Alabama. Martin Luther King, Jr. decided to hold a nonviolent direct action demonstration in Birmingham in hopes of opening negotiations to better circumstances for colored people and ended up being detained in solitary confinement. He receives a letter from several notable clergy members who admonish his actions in Alabama and accuse him of being an untimely extremist that has caused violence in Birmingham, intended or not. After King receives the letter, he refutes and addresses the clergy members' criticisms of his actions. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” iconic American civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. alludes to the

While in solitary confinement for nearly 8 days, reverend and social justice activist, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the criticism he received for his non-violent protests. Several clergy who negatively critiqued King’s approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Within the article, the clergymen provide nine different critiques that asserted how King’s protest are invalid, uneffective, and simply unintelligent in the fight for obtaining justice and equity for individuals of color. His letter has become one of the most profound pieces of literature of the 20th century, as King uses vivid examples and eloquent rhetorical devices to counter all nine arguments.

Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: Just and Unjust Laws Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a letter to eight white clergymen while he’s sitting in a jail cell, the result of a protest in Birmingham, Alabama that King, a Georgian, traveled to attend. Due to the criticisms of the clergymen, he commences his letter by explaining why he needed to come to Birmingham. King states that he was there for a multitude of reasons, the first being that he had organizational ties to Birmingham, the second being that he was there because there was injustice in Birmingham. He states that as a citizen of America, injustice in Birmingham is not removed from justice anywhere else because everything is interrelated, and that injustice

In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. is responding to criticism of the peaceful protests and sit-in’s that were taking place in Birmingham, which led to his being arrested and the reason that he was in jail. He first responds to the accusation of being an “outsider” by setting the stage for his being in Birmingham due to being invited because of his ties to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights organization and due to the fact that he is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Next, Martin Luther King expands on his moral beliefs that there is “injustice” in the way that Birmingham is “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States”.

Response to “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he responded to statements written in a Birmingham newspaper that criticized his actions in the city. He undermined these disapprovals by explaining his belief in nonviolent direct action. King also went on to give opinions on other topics, such as, the lack of support from white moderates and white churches. He used technique and structure to develop his ideas and justify his methods.

“Letter from Jail” On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight clergymen while he was incarcerated. Dr. King wrote this letter to address one of the biggest issues in Birmingham, Alabama and other areas within the United States. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discussed the great injustices that were happening during that time towards the black community. Dr. King wanted everyone to have the same equal rights as the white community, he also went into further details about the struggles that African Americans were going through for so many years, which he felt like it could change. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, expressed his beliefs and his actions about the Human Rights Movement.

With the help of these four steps, he justifies the need for the demonstration. King illustrates the city of Birmingham as “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States,” (King 2). Here King is able to show that injustices are present in Birmingham, which further justifies his reason for a peaceful demonstration. King proceeds to speak about his method of protesting. He states that negotiation was not met, and that “[their] hopes had been blasted,” that like “victims of a broken promise,” their wishes had been disregarded, (King 2).

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the author of “A Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” wrote his remarkable letter sitting in jail, on the sides of a newspaper! With the year being 1963, Martin Luther King was a revolutionist of civil injustice (segregation). He peacefully rebelled against the government`s inequality, but was later arrested and detained in the Birmingham City Jail. Despite his jurisdiction, King continued to show his natural leadership skills by expressing his points even in his most desperate times by writing the famous piece “A Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” With his words that “Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber,” King not only brings unity through parallelism, but also allows for the development of an arguable point.