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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham City Jail

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The Civil rights movement was a long and hard fight for freedom in our nation. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the many people who devoted themselves and fought for the movement. He did it in hope to make the world a better place. Outraged and indignant, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham city jail” addresses the events that took place in the name of freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. reflects on the events, through his use of tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools. In the passage “Letters from Birmingham city jail” his Diction [word choice] really helps him exemplify how upset he is about the events of the past few days. He really uses his diction to also explain why all of the racial injustice is wrong. He talks about …show more content…

He feels that they should have the right to their peaceful protests. He describes the officers’ actions as “ Ugly and inhumane” (paragraph 2, King) because of the hatred they have for the Negro people. King simply does not understand how his fellow brothers of the church could praise these officers’. By using these words to describe the officers, he is trying to depict how people actually treat him and his people. He’s showing them that what they’re praising is wrong. King just wants to see the “immoral end of flagrant racial injustice” (paragraph 3, King) he has stated this often throughout his whole letter to his fellow clergymen. I feel that he states this as kind of a statement that he will not stop till eventually they are free of racial injustice. Throughout his letter he uses a lot of different word choice, some of this helps him create imagery to explain more in depth. He uses his imagery to compel the reader into listening. Some examples of his imagery would be when he stated: “Before the pen of Thomas Jefferson etched across the pages of history…we were here” (paragraph 1, King) He is essentially stating that they were here even before we ourselves had freedom, and that they should have the same

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King’s letter is exceptionally successful because his heart wrenching examples result in strong pathos. Dr. King is attempting to get his audience to feel and be angered the same way colored people were. He tried to show how immoral law enforcement was by talking about seeing “ hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters” (3). He was doing this to attempt to get onlookers to feel how blacks felt. He talks about seeing “unconscious bitterness toward white people” building in young black minds when he talks about colored girls and boys not having the same opportunities as white children.

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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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King uses multiple analogies throughout his letter such as when he compares his own demonstrations for justice to those of early Christians who were scorned by those who saw them as different. He stated “Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were a “colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man” (186). This analogy had a major impact because the letter was directed at leaders of the Christian church who were rejecting people just as the Christians were rejected. King was also very effective at using emotional proofs in his letter such as when he states “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.

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is being called an “extremist”. He makes the case that there are two sides of viewpoints in the African-American community. He explains that, “One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of ‘somebodiness’” (Letter from Birmingham Jail 4). He mentions that, “on the other hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses” (Letter from Birmingham Jail 4).

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By using things that everyone knew of King was insuring they would understand what he meant. He is trying to say that in the past the church was in the same position as the African Americans in the South. They were seen as wrong and “disturbers of the peace” but now they sit in the background seeing everything but doing nothing and going with the majority on

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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.

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Dr. Martin Luther King and Frederick Roosevelt are both strong powered speakers of equal rights. These two amazing people have talked and fought for equal rights of every human being. With that, they’ve both have similarities in their amazing speeches letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King and four freedoms speech by Roosevelt. In 1963, MLK wrote a remarkable letter to the clergyman following his arrest In Birmingham. Whereas in 1941, Roosevelt published a speech to Congress on the state of the union.

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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.

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He uses a quote from St. Augustine, one of the founders of the Catholic church. It was important to use since most clergymen are catholic. King quotes St. Augustine‘s “an unjust law is no law at all.’” Using strong words written by someone so important helps the clergy realize King is not some illiterate African American, he is proving that he is educated as well. St. Augustine was an African philosopher, so he may have been African American which gives the clergymen an example of an intelligent person who isn’t white.

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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.

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“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.

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A Letter From Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. is a name that will never be forgotten, and that will go down in the books for all of time. He was foremost a civil rights activist throughout the 1950s and 1960s. during his lifetime, which lasted from January of 1929 to April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and a social activist and was known for his non- violent protests. He believed that all people, no matter the color, have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take a direct action rather than waiting forever for justice to come through and finally be resolved. In the Spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stated in a speech that Birmingham was among one of the most segregated cities in the world.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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