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

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After a public statement written by a handful of clergymen, King released his response refuting their claim in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Martin Luther King Jr. quickly establishes ethos by addressing himself as a preacher, clergyman, brother, and as an African American man. By doing so, he is able to clearly and effectively state what he wished to accomplish —to desegregate Birmingham through persuading church leaders and members. King argues that Jesus was an extremist for love, expressing his disappointment for the church, and declaring that a man-made law should be morally justified. Through these points, King states that the bystanders of the Christian community failed God, he does this by employing historical and religious allusions …show more content…

King carefully replaces the words hate and love with injustice and justice, in order to stress the need for justice within civil rights. King compares himself to Jesus, supporting his notion for radical love but also as an extremist for civil rights. He counteracts the clergyman’s claim by employing this allusion to unveil the irony of the political choices of the Christian community they choose to follow. Love evolves to justice and hate evolves to injustice; it has become a battle of what is morally right. It is with that concept as to why King expresses his …show more content…

Thomas Aquinas this in his tenth page where “[a] just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.” and “[a]ny law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” King uses St. Thomas Aquinas’ definitions in order to explain the inhumanity of the statutes for segregation. Declaring that segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Not only that, but while the clergymen condemns the statutes, they hardly do anything about it other than treating black Americans as equal as themselves. King reminds the clergymen through his allusions, that they need to follow and enforce the morality of God, he urges them to rethink about enforcing the segregation

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King was confident that his ethical reputation would enable him to persuade those in authority to end segregation, and he urged the clergy to examine their hearts before condemning him. Using a compare and contrast strategy, King (1963) demonstrates his disheartened view of the Church, despite the love and affection that he also had for it (p. 2). Further, he describes his connections with the early leaders of civil disobedience who were punished for transgressions against the moral law (p. 7). In his letter, King (1963) stated that "Justice too long delayed, is justice denied." (pp. 5-6).

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