...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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...Rhetorical Analysis of The Letter from Birmingham Jail Influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement and active agitator for justice, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. in his letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, argues passionately that injustice anywhere automatically creates the timely situation for organized retaliation in seeking freedom for the oppressed. King was arrested and placed in Birmingham Jail after a peaceful protest in downtown Birmingham. King was “the foremost civil rights leader in America in the 1950s and 1960s” (Kirszner and Mandell 799). “An ordained minister who held a doctorate in theology, King was the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference” (799). “King and his followers met opposition not only from white moderates but also from some African-American clergymen who thought King was a troublemaker.” King’s opposition labeled his demonstrations and acts against segregation as “untimely”, “unwise”, and...
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...on a regular bases. However, most are also not able to say that they where able to read a revolutionary piece of writing from their time period. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was this revolutionary piece of writing in the 1960s. King had written this letter while confined in Birmingham Jail and he had written it to the clergymen whom had written “A Call for Unity.” Throughout King’s letter he writes about the civil rights movement and makes an argument against what the clergymen had written about him. The Letter from Birmingham...
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...Letter From Birmingham In April of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama for his efforts in the civil rights movement. One day after King's arrest, a full-page advertisement taken out by a group of local, white, moderate, clergymen appeared in The Birmingham News. They attacked the demonstrations as "unwise and untimely" and concluded, "We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham. From his prison cell, King replied not only to the ministers' letter but also to an educated, white, middle-class audience, by writing his response in the margins of the newspaper and on toilet paper . "I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well timed in the view of those who have not suffered from the disease of segregation," King, wrote in what was later published as the essay, Letter from Birmingham Jail. The 6500 word letter went on to explain and make clear to the clergy and to the world why the struggle against racism must not be deferred. King's main claim in this letter is that no matter what the circumstances are it is far beyond time for the black community to stand up and fight for what is rightfully theirs, the same rights and freedoms accorded to the white community. King effectively accomplishes this task through the structure of the essay and in his use of pathos, ethos, and logos to defend his arguments. King's structure of the essay is purposeful in its attempt to sway...
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...Justice for All I will be sharing my essay with Kanny Huang, Mariah Musgrove, and Mr. Romine. Kanny and Mr. Romine are both males while Mariah is a female. Kanny and Mariah are both fellow classmates and Mr. Romine has a master’s degree in language arts. Kanny is of Asian ethnic background and is sixteen years old while Mr. Romine is of caucasian ethnic background and is forty-seven. Mariah is also sixteen years old and of caucasian ethnic background. They have all already read “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and very good background information on the topic. They all know Martin Luther King pushed for equality in a nonviolent way. Kanny and Mariah are both writing their own essays over the selected core reading. They too will be summarizing...
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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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...Consider the Lobster in Birmingham in Jail After reading Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and David Foster Wallace's “Consider the Lobster” it became evident that the two pieces had completely different audiences. “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was written during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and directly responded to “A Call for Unity.” “Consider the Lobster” had an audience consisting of foodies. By just the audience itself for which the pieces are written, it becomes clear that the levels of importance vary. Although, the two pieces differ in importance, both Wallace and King use ethos and logos to appeal to the audience. King’s essay is historically significant in that it addresses the deprivation of human rights,...
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...Nick Genaris Professor Ngoh Protest Literature 21th October 2015 Letter from Birmingham Jail-Rhetorical Analysis Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in order to address the biggest issue in Birmingham and the United States at the time (racism) and to also address the critics he received from the clergymen. The letter discusses the great injustices happening toward the Black community in Birmingham and although it is primarily aimed at the clergymen King writes the letter for all to read. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. uses logos, alliteration/repetition, and ethos to back up his belief that nonviolent protesting and disobedience is the most effective means to protest anything that needs to be changed, in this case segregation. After reading King’s letter I, and almost anyone, would come to the conclusion that King is deeply motivated to help against any injustice in the US. Who else would go to such lengths if they didn’t? He knows how persuasive he can be by using his knowledge of the English language, and he uses this to speak out against people who doubt him (clergymen) and to incite a different way of thinking into the people in hopes of change. Dr. King’s letter is extremely effective because it provides an enormous amount of evidence to the reader that he and his company are being treated unjustly and also that King truly cares about making a change for the good of the city. It also re-directs attention...
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...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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...In prose, it is said that content is more important than style. In the case of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s prominent style creates a platform for the development of the context of his opinions. A stylistic device King uses in both essays in order to convey his message is the allusion. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King references the Boston tea party, destruction that was then deemed gallant by the American public. King references this occurrence from the past to clarify that when he was arrested he was in fact doing the ethical thing, but it just happened to be illegal. Doing the moral thing, in Kings opinion, and doing the legal thing do not constantly have to correlate. This allusion also showcases that civil disobedience is not...
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...Letter From Birmingham Jail Vs. “I Have a Dream Speech” The first way that a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “ I have a Dream” differ are in their intended audience, as one is intended for a group of white clergymen while the other is intended to rally a large group. This difference in audience and how Dr. King chooses to appeal to each of his audiences causes for the choices in language and the purpose of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “I have a Dream” to differ. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is addressed to white clergymen, and the purpose of the letter is to defend the demonstrations that were taking place. As Dr. King is trying to defend the demonstrations to these white clergymen, his language choice is quite interesting. One brilliant way that he chooses to defend the demonstrations is by appealing to the white men through his choice of Anglo terms. For instance, in the letter, Dr. King writes, “Just as the prophets of the eighth century century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saint the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns…I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town” (King). This choice of wording makes Dr. King’s argument stronger since as these white men disagree with Dr. King and his form of peaceful protest, the white clergymen will not be able to argue back because he is using religious references that if the white men chose to argue against, it would make them look like hypocrites (Eubank). While...
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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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...Civil Freedom On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and put in a Birmingham jail for demonstrating/protesting without a permit. During this time, he wrote a letter to eight dissatisfied white clergymen on behalf of a public statement of concern. In this lengthy, strong-handed letter, Dr. King did not argue; he did not get angry, but rather, he provided views of brotherhood and peace within his rebuttal. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King uses a variety of rhetorical strategies in order to persuade and inform his audience of the benefits of equality. Dr. King was thrown in jail due to illegal protesting. During his time of being locked up, “[he] came across a recent statement calling their present activities ‘unwise and untimely”. (King 1) During the time that King was locked up, he had plenty of time to think and release his anger, but it wasn’t until later when he began to write a rebuttal of the recent criticisms made by the eight white clergymen. In the letter, King does not release any anger, nor does he argue with the clergymen’s response. In fact, he writes in a calm manner that sends a message of peace, as well as comfort. On the other hand though, he doesn’t simply ignore the fact of the utter ignorance of what was said. A main strategy that King uses is one that...
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...different people who are not part of the Government that can help us to have the rights that is best for our country. The argument in this essay will be about Civil Disobedience,now Civil Disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines,as a peaceful form of political protest.This essay will include great examples about Civil Disobedience such as,”The Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King,”The Declaration...
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... Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letters from Birmingham Jail” while incarcerated for his participation in the civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was a response to “A Call for Unity,” published by the Birmingham clergymen in the Birmingham News, which attempted to end all nonviolent civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. In the letter, Dr. King described his reasons for having been in Birmingham and his opinions and reasons for protesting. He also explained what actions could have been taken for the demonstrations to cease. By using historical quotes, emotional appeals, an assertive tone, and common sense, Dr. King thoroughly and effectively stated his point on the protest that would get positive feedback, which in turn he had hoped to receive from the audience of strict officials that resisted change. As Dr. King began and ended his letter, he did so with respect to the audience. He acknowledged them as “men of genuine good will” (King 263), and at the end he also stated that he had hoped to meet them one day as Christian equals (King 279); doing this, Dr. King hoped to show that he accepted their criticisms. In return, he hoped that the clergymen would hear what he had to say and give it genuine thought. Had he been disrespectful the clergyman would not have taken what he had to say into consideration. Dr. King used religion to reach the clergymen’s moral thoughts and explain exactly why he was in Birmingham when he wrote, “Just as the eighth...
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