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An Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Whitney Murphy Ms. Knox English 1 Honors, Period 2 10 May 2023 Essay On King’s Words There were more than 200,000 people present when Martin Luther King Jr gave his I Have A Dream Speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail was first published in the national press on May 19, 1963, and rapidly spread throughout the country. Since then, King’s words have touched hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. One of the leaders of the civil rights movement, King both wrote and spoke about his beliefs, stirring the hearts of many in an already unrestful country. Throughout King’s writing, he demonstrates the power of words in his ability to provoke, calm, and inspire his audience. King’s words have the power …show more content…

This is evident in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. King begins his letter by directly addressing the white clergymen. King says “I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes” (King, 272). King is assuring the white clergymen that he does not think of them as ignorant men. King is assuring the white clergymen of his confidence in their intentions. By doing this, King is showing the white clergymen respect. As King was himself a leader in many roles, such as a minister, husband, and civil rights activist, he understands the importance of respect. King understands that respect is earned and not given freely. So to show the clergymen respect in a public letter was a pretty big deal. King also is showing that he knows that without respect going both ways, negotiation is impossible. King is showing that he knows that criticism must come from a place of respect and never from a place of anger or frustration. King is appeasing the white clergymen by telling them that he understands where they are coming from. King again uses his words to calm in his I Have A Dream speech. King speaks of the future of their country. Kings says “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (King, 263). King paints a picture in our minds of brotherhood and equality. Though an everyday occurrence, sitting down together at a table is surprisingly significant. Sitting together is a sign of equality. The Bible illustrates this very well. Jesus was known to sit with people from all backgrounds, whether they be pharisees or prostitutes, fishermen or tax collectors. Many looked down upon him because of this, while others thought he was too far above to be eating

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King wants to persuade the clergyman that African Americans have the same rights as white people. The very first sentence Martin Luther King Jr. states “My dear fellow clergymen” to show the clergymen he is just like them (Martin 490). When he is says this at the beginning of the letter he is directly confronting them. King wants to prove to these clergymen he is not any different. He is still human with the same religion even though he is colored skin.

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He can establish his character so the clergymen can see that he is doing these movements because he is also affected by the unjust treatment the colored community faces. King is also able to establish his character to other readers of his letter who may not be of color but may think like the clergymen do and find it hard to understand why they are doing this. This is where King’s experience helps others see that they can trust him and what he is saying because he has suffered along with

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At the end of his letter he addresses the clergymen " I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergymen and a Christian brother" (paragraph 7). This statement makes a claim the king wants to meet these seven clergymen in person and speak about the issues he wrote in this letter. Another rhetorical tool king uses in his letter are similes. This rhetorical tool helps king compare two things and address the point as he sees it. " Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek" (paragraph 3).

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The rhetorical situation for the letters by the eight white clergymen and King begins with rallying cries to further the civil rights movement. This was a result of the segregation and injustice that was still occurring in Alabama. King was jailed for participating in a march on Good Friday and further protest ensued. After this instance black and white leaders began to negotiate terms to end segregation. The idea behind this is that America had refused to allow everyone the American dream, and that we were not upholding the ideas we supposedly held so dear.

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Kings letter he decides to use the appeal of their shared beliefs in Christianity. Dr. King's goal is to appeal to their emotions and try to connect with them through shared faith. In the course of this conclusion Dr. King goes on to maintain how he views the Clergymen and how he wants to be viewed by them as well when he asserts that he wants to meet them but not as an "integrationist or a civil-rights leader" but instead perceived as "a fellow clergyman" and "a Christian brother". When Dr. King uses these words he is portraying how he wants to be seen amongst people he wants to consider equal. When taking into consideration these words, it is clear that Dr. King uses them to emphasize his wish of being given the ability to be seen as an equal to these

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In “Letters from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr answers the clergymen's criticisms in a calm and collected way, acknowledging them and providing insight into his ideas rather than attacking and criticizing. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr begins this letter by addressing his audience, the clergymen, as “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” This automatically shows that King is taking a more friendly, sincere approach to this rather than a confrontational approach. He is attempting to make them listen and agree with him and his ideas, not give them a reason to completely disregard what he is saying. Throughout the whole letter, King addresses the clergymen’s complaints and criticizes them, without directly attacking and accusing them.

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“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” (King, Jr.). Martin Luther King Jr. exceeded this “measure of a man” during his civil rights acts as a strong soldier in a very volatile time. During this time of “challenge and controversy” King made himself heard in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In some of his civil rights acts that occurred in Birmingham, resulted in him ending up in jail. During his time in jail, he wrote his also famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”

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Being a highly educated civil rights activist, a fellow minister, and the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King declared his knowledge and experience as proof that he had the authority to speak on the issues. He strategically used biblical and historical references to expose the reality that segregation, injustice, and racism still strongly existed in Birmingham. Though it was an open letter to all Americans, his intended audience was the eight white clergymen. He presented them with concise reasoning for why they too should take action, or face the dilemma of being immorally incorrect in their beliefs.

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When responding to the eight white clergymen, he states, “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas,” giving the reader the notion that a plethora of criticism must come across his desk. But, he has chosen to write a response and explain himself simply because King feels they are “men of genuine good will” and their criticism is “sincerely set forth.” After the introduction of his letter, he feels he must next explain his location at the time: Birmingham Jail. “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here,” says King. This quote lets the reader know there is a reason behind King’s arrest, a very good reason, too.

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King’s tone in the opening paragraph is sarcastic towards his critics whom he is addressing. He conveys sarcasm through lines like “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything [else]… I would have no time for constructive work” (1), when he is writing from jail. He does not have anything else to do except write this letter, because his options are severely limited in jail. Rather than immediately answering the clergymen’s criticisms, he seeks to make a point that he is locked in jail writing this letter, so it is important.

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In his letter he is mainly reaching out to the entire country to try and get them to put a stop to racial injustice. The way that he addressed and refuted the clergymen's letter is one of the things that made this letter most effective. Another thing that made this letter so effective, is the way that he used the appeal to emotion, or pathos, to pull the readers in and make them think about if it were them that were being discriminated against. Martin Luther King Jr. is very successful in explaining how injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

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A key part of King’s vision “I have a dream”: Who doesn’t have Martin Luther King speech resonating in his head when he hears these worlds. Those words heard during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom “on August 28th, 1963. The brio of “The King”, King capacity to deliver an explicit, powerful, persuasive speech to the crowd. Through his use of context, appeals and symbols, he encourages his nation to embrace the word of “the Declaration of Independence”.

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He writes this letter to defend his organization and peaceful protesting, yet also identifies the racial injustices he, and many other citizens received. King’s writing was very effective in accomplishing his goal to get his point across that segregation is a very serious thing. King hopes that his powerful and emotional message in his letter will impact how the clergymen, the whites, and many others approach and take action towards segregation. He hopes that they will see how terrible inequality truly is and make the American Society have less hate and more

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Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream” is vastly recognized as one of the best speeches ever given. His passionate demand for racial justice and an integrated society became popular throughout the Black community. His words proved to give the nation a new vocabulary to express what was happening to them. Martin was famously a pacifist, so in his speech, he advocated peaceful protesting and passively fighting against racial segregation.

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most well-known and critically acclaimed speeches of all time. Every child, every teenager, every adult has at some point in their lives heard King’s speech. They have heard the words “I have a dream” ring through the air. The success of King’s speech is not accidental by any means. King’s speech bears many of the hallmarks of a strong persuasive speech.

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