Martin Luther King was the most well known civil rights activist and was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama on April 16, 1963. He was arrested for protesting without a license. While in jail, Martin Luther King wrote a letter in jail, in response to the clergymen stating that he will no longer sit and wait to be heard. While writing his letter, Martin Luther King uses his claims, rhetorical devices, and sources to develop his argument. In King's letter, he explains why he is in Birmingham. He argues against the clergymen who say he is an "outsider coming in" when he is no outsider. He is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is an organization …show more content…
King acknowledges that, "In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience." He justified the act of civil disobedience by comparing the Boston Tea Party to the civil rights movement. He also uses rhetorical devices such as imagery and biblical allusions to further show how the world has violated their civil rights. King also gives an example of, "We should never forget everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal", which he is trying to say that just because it was legal or illegal does not make it right or wrong. To conclude Martin Luther King's "Letter to Birmingham Jail", he ends off his letter stating, "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities..." which explains him asking them to bring his letter to their hearts to change the racial prejudice everyone born in the United States will have civil rights. When one considers rhetorical devices used in his letter, he uses imagery, sensory, and biblical allusions to bring together his letter to touch the hearts of many and change the