The Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. skillfully uses ethos throughout his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In paragraph two, he establishes credibility by writing, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference." The SCLC is a legitimate organization that has organized nonviolent resistance against racism in the south, and by saying that he leads this group King is implying that he is in a position to where he can be trusted. Throughout the letter King repeatedly establishes his ethos to his target audience, the white clergymen from “A Call for Unity”, by referencing to important biblical figures such as Jesus Christ and Apostle Paul. In paragraph three, King compares his work on the Civil Rights Movement with the

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Mr. King writes to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison and establishes credibility on the subject of racial discrimination and discusses all the injustice that is going on during this time. King sends out the message that they are no better than he is by starting off his letter with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”, which puts him at the same level as all clergyman. He puts himself out to be a legitimated authority in the eyes of the people, by speaking of the intolerable acts being put on all black people to be able to justify his cause. Martin Luther King uses ethos to establish all his credibility on the matter that he is trying to get across, that justice cannot be waited on and that

In this letter Martin Luther King Jr. starts off by using ethos to establish his credibility. By beginning the letter saying “My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” King is positioning himself to show that he is at equal status with the Birmingham Prison Clergymen and establishing that they are both on the same level. King then goes on to say that he is the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He continues and says that they have eighty-five

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail in the year 1963 at a time when the African Americans were fighting for equality having experienced racial bigotry perpetuated by the Whites for so long. Because of his outspoken criticism of the government and the Whites for propagating racism, King was arrested and jailed in Birmingham from where he wrote his letter which is considered a significant artifact that reflects the challenges that African Americans experienced in the United States during their struggle for equality and equal treatment before the law. In the letter, King uses pathos, ethos, and logos to appeal to the clergy and to the readers to agree with him that him together with his “people” held demonstrations because it became absolutely necessary to do so. King uses ethos, pathos, and logos which is apparent in his condemning and a pervasive tone meant to influence the reader to support his actions leading

Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his speeches and active movements against segregation and oppression of African Americans in the mid-1900s. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King makes apparent the three artistic appeals, especially logos and pathos. Throughout the entire piece, King repeatedly appeals to logos and pathos using a series of rhetoric including anaphora, imagery, and allusion. By using these literary devices, King is able to effectively correct the misconceptions held by his accusers and justify the behavior of the nonviolent protest by shining light on the unjustified segregation that is holding the African American community hostage. In a response to a statement issued by eight white religious leaders of the South, King maintains a steady and respectful tone conveying to his audience his refinement and good cause.

Perhaps the reason Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is so well known even to this day is because it is a model of persuasive writing that makes great use of ethos, logos, and pathos in order to aid the readers in understanding and sympathizing with King and his followers. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was a civil rights leader, who was arrested and put in jail after being part of the Birmingham campaign in April 1963. He was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was asked by an Alabama group to come to Birmingham. A city that at the time was known for still participating heavily in segregation even though the supreme court had ruled against it in 1954 (Brown V. Board of Education 1). King and members of his organization joined The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and organized a non-violent protest against racial segregation. Everyone involved in the protest was arrested including Dr. King. While King was in jail eight white clergy men released a public statement that was published in a Birmingham news paper, titled “a call to unity” which addressed the protests that king led and described his activities as “unwise and untimely”. King’s response to this statement was “The Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, in which he also tried to open the eyes and minds of the average middle class white American.

A mass amount of the context in this letter reiterates King’s qualifications in performing the specific act of leadership powerfully well, when addressing the Clergyman reinforces ethos to make a concrete and credible case of the ability to lead in addition to upholding high moral standard and ideals. King recognized that the Clergymen had been influenced by the idea of “outsiders coming in” as he mentions in the letters, and implicates that he is one of the same, and by using ethos and demonstrating his involvement with numerous Christian organizations along with a mass

Credibility and ethics are one of the first things noted in King’s letter, and the presentation of it helps the reader to carry on reading the letter with open-mindedness and trust that King will continue to sincerely explain the reasons for the letter and the protest. Also, he establishes his credibility in the second paragraph by responding to the clergymen’s view that he was an outsider coming in. Similarly, King institutes his credibility by revealing that he is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was an organization working in every southern state. Martin Luther King Jr. also appeals to ethos by even stating the clergymen’s views throughout his letter, which, of course embodies the alternative to his views. People have respect and trust for King which is proof of his reliability, as one man writes, “I believe Luther's actions truly reflect his belief that all people should be equal. His actions also show his commitment to the movement and the fact that this man was a leader” (Akerman 1).

King’s purposeful use of appealing to reason gave him an upper hand throughout his piece, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and established security in his statements. Taking ethos into consideration from Martin Luther King’s text, we saw why he presented himself in such a formal manner. “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia” (Paragraph 2, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”). By using this appeal to credibility, King earned his audience’s respect and varnished his message. Connecting to his readers, Martin Luther King also utilized pathos throughout his letter to add just another foothold on his audience. “But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, written to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison, he uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos to establish his credibility on the subject of racial discrimination and injustice. He starts off the letter with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”. By him saying this, he is putting himself on the same “level” as the clergymen, sending the message that he is no less than them and they are no better than him. He then goes on to say, “I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. He is telling them that he has credibility on the matter of injustice, not because he is the recipient of white privilege, but because he is well researched on the subject. King says, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern

In this beginning of this article, Dr. King explains to the clergymen how he believe they are “Men of genuine good” and that he also feel their “criticisms are sincerely set forth. He merely shows that he is not writing this letter to attack or degrade their positions or their feelings on how he,

Many people believe that their voice won’t be heard in this world but this mans voice changed the nation. It was 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. when king delivered his greatest speech on the facts of injustices to the black community. King makes an effective argument about the inequality of treatment the black community through his use of ethos, pathos, logos, and alliteration. King builds his credibility through the use of personal events for injustice done to him, his family and friends.

Frequently, we share staff, educational, and financial resources with our affiliates.” The purpose for the introduction is to establish his credibility as a member of the United States of America. He is proving to them that he contains just as much intellect on the subject of injustice and racial discrimination, if not more. Martin Luther King Jr. then appeals to pathos by showing the trials his people have gone through. He does this by using lines such as, “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim.”, and “when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters.” In these lines he is using incendiary language like “vicious mobs” and parallelism such as “lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” by using this kind of language and sentence structure King is making you envision and feel what he had to see his friends and family go through in those hard times. Throughout the whole paragraph using this kind of sentence structure and a lot of imagery the audience starts to feel what it would be like to be in King’s position and feel the pain and troubles he had to go through. It is really an emotional paragraph, and using this emotion at the beginning of his letter captures the attention of his audience. This is

Martin Luther King uses ethical appeal (ethos) to address the white clergy when he states “I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth” (King, 2017, p. 1). He also follows that directly with an ethical appeal to set his credibility and authority as well as his reasoning for being in Birmingham as he explains his position as the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and that he has been invited to come to Birmingham. As Mr. King continues to provide emotional appeal to his audience he points out that he continues to “so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools” (King, 2017, p.5) He is pointing out that Birmingham has chosen not only just laws, but is continuing to promote unjust law through their continuation of segregation in the schools.

Martin Luther King Jr. is an activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, he fought to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through nonviolent means. In the 1930’s Martin Luther King Jr. was thrown into jail during the protest of Alabama Christian Movement of Human Rights, where colored people peacefully protested for their rights. He then wrote a letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” why he has been placed in Birmingham Jail and why it is wrong that peaceful colored protesters were placed in jail.