Pathos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most important men in history. He is the spear head of the equal right movement. His goals were to have equal right between all people no matter what you skin color is. King was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail, the reason why, he was a part of a non-violent campaign. King wrote "letter from Birmingham Jail" for eight white religious leaders. He addresses this in a statement the eight men created, Kings Letter wanted to address why his activities were "unwise and untimely"(584). Kings argument is rhetorically effective through his use of ethos, logos and pathos, he uses these to convince and compel his audience.
The reason for why King in sitting in the Birmingham jail, he

Kings letter opens with his argument responding to what these eight men wrote; they wrote a newspaper ad “A Call for Unity”. In the newspaper ad the clergymen say, “When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets” (583). The eight clergymen say they want to help King and his follows; however, they are not willing to enforce it. In addition the newspaper ad states, “We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders” (583). King and his staff are being called “outsiders”, King counters “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds” (584). King does not want to be known as an outsider, he is an American citizen who has all the same rights to be in Birmingham as it citizens. King further explains why he is more than capable to accomplish his goal in Birmingham, King says " I have the honor of severing as precedent of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating on every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the south, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights"(584). This shows Kings credibility, he is responding with what he has accomplished. He is showing his

King writes, "but when you have seen viscous mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sister and brother at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse,kick,and even kill you black brother and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negros brothers smothering in a air tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park... when you have to answer for a five year old son who is asking "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"(586-87). King explains other situations that his community cannot do because the color of their skin. This paragraph is very powerful so how poorly the black community was treated. It also show their daily struggle of how there were these new thing but they could not attend because their skin color. To conclude this paragraph kings says "there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the deep abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand out legitimate and unavoidable impatience"(587). This shows that people can only take so much before they will revolt against the aggressor. King uses pathos very effectively to make is argument very