Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

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"Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," states Martin Luther King Junior in his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". He is in jail for participating in nonviolent resistance to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama after being summoned there by local activists. In the letter, he responds and justifies his actions to a group of white clergymen, who express a concern toward his protests against racism in Birmingham. King explains why he is breaking certain laws that degrade human life, and he calls for racial segregation to be stopped. King justifies his presence in Birmingham, his mission to end racism and segregation, and his civil disobedience by his use of ethos, pathos, and logos.
One of the appeals that King uses in his letter is ethos. King states, "Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal,". By saying this, King compares himself to the famous and brilliant philosopher Socrates, and he tells his readers that he is trying to accomplish something for the good of society like …show more content…
An example of this is when King writes, "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider,". This appeals to the reader's logic, because it is just common sense that somebody who lives inside of a certain area should not be treated like an outsider or foreigner. That area is their home, and they should be treated like everyone else that lives in that home. Also, King uses logos when he states, "History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily,". This statement tells the reader's that majority groups are not going to simply give up their privileges to give African Americans, so some sort of movement must be started, which is King's
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