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Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail served various purposes besides responding to the attack on nonviolent tactics by the Alabama clergymen. His letter painted a vivid picture of the grief, desperation, and impatience that filled black hearts. The choices King made when writing the letter allowed the reader to view the civil rights issue from a Negro perspective. Dr. King first filled the reader with the overwhelming desperation blacks had felt for generations, and then he set out to debunk the clergymen’s argument. In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, a group of Alabama clergymen criticized the nonviolent tactics of activists like MLK. The clergymen claimed the demonstrations of civil rights activists were making …show more content…

He used long sentences composed of short powerful phrases as a lens into black suffering. King repeated phrases beginning with variations of “when you see” to create a state of overwhelming grief and hardship (3-4: 37-17). He gave descriptions of daily struggles blacks endured. King wrote, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your brothers and sisters at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters…” (3: 41-43). The reader feels overwhelmed because King bombards him with these situations all at once. These short descriptive phrases make up one long sentence. The reader was holding his breath throughout most of the paragraph; King allowed the reader to “exhale” by saying, “Then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait” (4: 14-15). By the end of the paragraph, the reader feels the burden of the Negro, which allows him to understand the urgency and severity of the Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, with the burden of the black man on his back, the reader can also understand King’s indignation towards the clergymen’s wait. Dr. King used repetition to focus and guide the reader’s

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This reference particularly stands out due to the vast amount of religious individuals following the Bible’s teachings; comparing oneself to Jesus and his associates has incredible potential to increase the following for a cause if it is just. King also used an alternate mood to address pathos, invoking sadness, disgust, and discomfort to describe horrific events which occurred during non-violent protests. "Like so many experiences of the past we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us.” Because King assumes that his audience has experienced disappointment, this statement provokes sympathy, understanding, and support by stating that African Americans had already gone through many trials and tribulations just as many other people have around the world. This creates a bond between king and his audience, showing that his followers and he himself aren’t any more different from white people than any other

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Pain and suffering which resulted in Kings action to protest and denounce these injustices. Pain and suffering which came from the killing of innocent African American children who were caught in the midst of hate. Suffering that came with when the killers of the innocent girls killed in the church bombing were set free just because they were white. Pain from a justice system that only served the whites but left the people of color out and were treated badly because of the color of their skin. King is trying to convey the messages that is not time to wait but to act because they a tired of the

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a key leader in the civil rights movement, and is well known for his Alabama bus boycott as well as many other nonviolent forms of demonstration against segregation. He wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama after being arrested for peaceful protesting, in 1963. This letter is a response to “Statement by Alabama Clergymen,” in which various members of the clergy criticized King’s efforts to take a stand against discrimination. Throughout paragraphs 13 and 14, King uses metaphors, antitheses, as well as a somber tone in order to appeal to pathos, to argue for the priority needed to change segregation laws.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. As he sits in a cell of Birmingham Jail in 1963, he responds to criticism from eight white clergymen. Though this letter was intended for the judgemental and condescending men of high faith, his response touched the hearts and minds of the entire U.S. population, then, and for years to come. In his tear-jerking, mind-opening letter, King manages to completely discredit every claim made by the clergymen while keeping a polite and formal tone. Metaphors, allusions, and rhetorical questions are used in the most skillful way to support his argument and ultimately convince his audience of the credibility behind his emotional, yet factual, claims.

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Throughout the text, King utilized the values of his audience to gain sympathy and later on support. His use of diction and syntax would align his mission to God’s, and show that he was in the right and the clergymen were in the wrong. In his letter, King effectively used an extended periodic sentence that consisted of more than 300 words. The sentence has an extreme appeal to pathos, with such vivid imagery

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“...when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” (MLK, 276). King uses this strong sense of appeal to emotion to engross his readers and let them know how hard it is for them.

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This reference in particular evokes the strongest emotional response from black people because many African Americans revered Lincoln for his decision to sign the revolutionary Emancipation Proclamation, and how the document symbolized a free future for slaves--the ancestors of the blacks in the crowd. But the next few lines following this allusion also persuades those ignorant of how little things have changed by highlighting the “manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” that blacks still suffer from despite the hundred year gap. Here, he uses the connotations of “manacles” and “chains” to evoke a negative emotional response from the audience, especially from those unaware of the need to change, causing their opinion to match the speaker’s: against segregation. Additionally, King weaves biblical allusions into his speech to appeal to the Christians within the crowd. He uses the “dark and desolate valley of segregation” to illustrate the injustice African Americans have endured for centuries and juxtapositions it with the “sunlit path of racial justice” to exemplify a future where true freedom exists for

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