...Luther King, Jr. was an activist for civil rights. Dr. King was negro, at the time of the civil rights movement people who were negro had few to no rights. On the 12th of April 1963, Dr. King receives a letter from eight clergymen. In the letter, the clergymen tell Dr. King to stop protesting and leave the segregation to the courts (Carpenter et al. 1). When Dr. King receives the letter, he is in jail for starting protests. In the letter Dr. King writes, he includes examples of logos. Dr. King explains that he is in Birmingham because injustice is present. In his letter, he explains that negros should be considered a native citizen because people are living on the grounds of the United...
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...In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a Letter from Birmingham Jail after arrested for peacefully protesting against segregation and racial discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama. The Jim Crow system created segregation laws for blacks and whites having separate bathrooms, schools, and restaurants that existed after the era of slavery. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had expected the support of numerous local religious figures in hopes of uniting to end racial terror. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail King recognizes and replies to every nine detailed criticisms created by the white church and its leaders. What is evident in this letter is that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses emotional, rational, and ethical to persuade those who read his letter. To get his readers feeling emotion King...
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...The prison guard handed Martin Luther King a newspaper chastising his “unwise and untimely” protest that ultimately landed him in Birmingham Jail. Dr. King formed a crafted retaliation in the margins of the newspaper. Although he addressed his response to the Clergymen, King, from his cold small jail cell betrothed himself to a much larger audience. His expression of reasoning, and arousal of empathy was remarkable, however, his ability to display himself as meritorious from Birmingham Jail was perhaps one of his most commemorated rhetorical achievements. King adopted a logical approach in order to defend his resorting to protests in lieu of negotiations. He targeted those who called his protest “unwise and untimely” and characterized him...
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...Imagine living in a world defined by race, or the color of your skin, This dystopian reality was America in 1963, In 1963 Martin Luther King was put in jail for protesting the mistreatment of african americans in Birmingham, Alabama. During his time in jail he wrote a letter to some Clergymen. In this letter he shows the injustice that was thriving in America. The unfair segregation and why they should espouse their rights. In 1963 Martin Luther King was held captive in the Birmingham city jail for protesting about the mistreatment of african americans. He wrote a letter responding to his fellow clergymen because they called his actions “unwise and untimely” In this letter explaining his actions in paragraph 7 it states “explain to your six year old daughter why she can't...
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...agree with Martin Luther King Jr., in his essay titled Letter from Birmingham Jail, when he asserts that it is the obligation of people to resist unjust laws. King initially wrote the essay in response to the open letter by a group of clergymen from Birmingham, Alabama, who were criticizing the methods in which King and his supporters were protesting. Not only does King defend his position, but he also expands on the idea of just and unjust laws. Essentially, King says that it is crucial that people be aware of laws that are just and unjust, how they are applied, and what should be done if a law is unjust. I agree with what King says about just and unjust laws, because I believe that there will always be unjust laws. It is very dangerous if a society, or really any organization, begins to blindly follow the laws put out by authority figures. This would allow the authority to take advantage of the members of society and focus on personal/private interests. It is a question of when, not if, that authority will create an unjust law/rule. This is due primarily to the fact that humans are flawed on a fundamental level. We know this because religion has long recognized this fundamental weakness. The Catholic Church itself has...
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...Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter to Birmingham Jail” in a complicated time for African Americans and other ethnic groups. Due to not having the same opportunities as whites and being segregated, African Americans experienced an intense backlash to the promises once guaranteed by the Union’s victory in the Civil War. This lead to several individuals, like Martin Luther King Jr., to stand up for their Civil Rights through civil disobedience. This ultimately lead King into jail where he would write this letter. Overall, Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter to Birmingham Jail” served to show the white church leaders, as well as the public, why his actions are just and why they should avoid criticizing what he’s trying to accomplish through...
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...Luther King Jr. was imprisoned in Birmingham, Alabama for leading the non-violent demonstration against racial segregation and injustice. As Kind read the letter written by the eight local Clergymen, he then wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, in order to defend his action nonviolent actions. King uses many varieties of rhetoric strategies to exemplify his argument. He uses three Aristolean means of persuasion Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to establish his argument on the nonviolent protest movement. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, written from the Birmingham Jail, he uses ethos to establish the credibility on the subject of racial discrimination and injustice. King states in the letter “I have the honor of serving as president of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated...
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...Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail It is necessary for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to make the distinction between just and unjust laws to justify their actions of civil disobedience at the time. King describes to the clergymen that there are two types of laws; those that are just and those that are unjust. Dr. King begins by stating that he does not advocate the disobedience of just laws simply because “One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws,” meaning that when a citizen knows that a law is in effect, they have to either follow it or face the punishments that come with breaking the law. Martin Luther King describes a just law as “a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of...
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...relate their motives to their reader. In 1963, Martin Luther King composed a letter voicing his concerns about the racial injustice occurring in the South. His intentions for writing were clearly stated through his ability to establish himself as a legitimate authority in the eyes of his audience, justify his cause, and argue the necessity of immediate action. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of the rhetorical appeal of ethos provides him with sufficient credibility on the subject of racial discrimination, thus supplying himself with the ability to effectively convey his motives for civil disobedience to the clergymen of the South. King demonstrates his appeal to ethos throughout the course of his argument by considering himself as an equal individual to his audience. At the start of his letter,...
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...Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the letter from Birmingham jail in 1963. He wrote it while he had been in jail for eleven days. Dr. King at the time had many supporters, but he also had several haters who disagreed with his beliefs and values. Martin Luther King, Jr. received hate from people in leadership position, but he continued to proclaim freedom and racial equality. The purpose of “ Letter from Birmingham Jail” deals with a response from Dr. King to his critics and “ clergymen”. Dr. King desired to make his followers aware of the problems that were occurring in Birmingham, so that they could in some way help him. Dr. King’s letter serves as a historic and well-known document that became part of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King begins...
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...In those Halcyon Sixties, specifically in April of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his remarkable Letter from Birmingham Jail. In it he explained to his fellow clergy critical of his sit-ins, marches, and direct action why he felt non-violent activism was necessary. He wrote from his cell that he has “almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride towards freedom is not . . . the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.” He acknowledged that while they truly do agree with the goals he seeks, they choose to avoid the tension of activism. After the long day at the office or chauffeuring the kids around, we need to relax in front of the...
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...After reading Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter From Birmingham Jail we can agree that it’s a great example of the variety of rhetorical devices that he uses that makes his latter so amazing, breathtaking and powerful. The audience for the letter was mainly for the White Birmingham Clergymen, the letter as a response to the claims they had made, and was also targeted towards others who were part of the racial segregation campaign and for those supporting King and other racial civil rights activists. So the letter was made for everyone, which is a pretty big audience, King just wanted people know what he was truly feeling during his time in his jail cell. The King's only purpose in writing the Letter From Birmingham Jail was to explain the terrible...
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...Letter from Birmingham Jail After Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned in Birmingham city jail for a peaceful protest, eight white clergymen from Alabama wrote an article entitled “A Call for Unity”. In it they agreed with the need for desegregation and acknowledged the common social injustices in Birmingham, but ultimately criticized King’s approach and called direct action “unwise and untimely”. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a response to these criticisms as King states in the opening paragraph of the letter addressed to “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”. He has written “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a response to eight white men who share in his faith, his cause, but dismiss his approach. The audience, also, extends to African Americans at this time, members of the Christian church, and even segregationists willing to read it. It was made public in the June 12, 1963 edition of the Christian Century. The audience, throughout the years, has grown to encompass historians, students, and anyone who has studied the civil rights era. The purpose behind...
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...African-American Civil Rights Movement was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King was born on 15 January, 1929. He was a firm advocate of peaceful actions as a means to attain change. He was the leader of peaceful protests against the segregation of Negro people in America. However, his peaceful protests failed to bring equality. On top of that, the city government of Birmingham passed a legal provision banning street marches without permission. The black...
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...from Birmingham Jail” In the 1950’s and well through the 1960’s, Martin Luther King Jr. was the main leader of the civil rights movements. There was violence in innocent protesting, cruel bombings, and soul poured speeches. The Civil Right movements, involving people of both skin colors, measured up to a very large sum of events, both implementing segregation and the fight against the segregation. King had experienced many events, both eye opening and cruel, both strong and solid with morals. Yet throughout the turmoil between the differences of both races King did not fail to speak his word. MLK did not fail to make know that what segregation stood for was wrong and treacherous. King did not underestimate his ability to be unwavering...
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