1) On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. responds to a newspaper article written by eight white clergymen saying that King's actions were "unwise and untimely." King's serious and passionate letter uses various rhetorical devices and appeals to argue against the clergyman's claim.
2) In the the letter, King establishes credibility and makes a claim that he is not an outsider through his use of ethos. With King being the "president of the Southern Christian Leadership conference" this shows his organizational ties and that his "organization [operates] in every southern state," King's status as a president shows the integrity and cogency of his argument against the clergymen. Additionally, King's use of allusion to the Bible and Paul,…show more content… In this paragraph, King's first allusion to the Bible and argument that "the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar is morally and wholly right due to their grounding in higher moral law. Additionally, King shows that the reader's ability to have academic freedom is only due to the "civil disobedience" of Socrates, showing a moral right and God-given ability to learn due to the "wrongdoing" of civil disobedience. Finally, King's allusion to the Boston Tea Party shows irrefutable evidence supporting his claim. The Boston Tea Party is a major event in the United States history, being a massive act of civil disobedience that is in fact celebrated due to its contribution in leading to the American Revolution. By The Boston Tea Party being a major advocate for freedom, this adds to his claim through his reasoning of freedom needing to have tension as well as civil disobedience in order to continue to…show more content… In the text, King asks the questions "where were they" in order to ask a question in which King calls the reader to action. While King may ask why the church abandoned the Negro community in its greatest time of need, he still loves the church. "There can be no deep disappointment when there is no deep love." Overall, King is still disappointed by their deep need to conform and their overall negligence of the problem that is
