A Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham
In Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham, he targeted specific people who he wrote the letter for including everybody. Specifically he targeted the clergymen who made laws at that time. Dr. King was the foremost civil rights leader in America in the 1950s and 1960s who was ordained minister and held a doctorate in theology. Dr. King fought against segregation between Black Americans and White Americans. Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. Dr. King was arrested, and put in jail in Birmingham where he wrote a letter to the clergymen telling them how long Blacks were supposed to wait for their God giving rights and not to be force and treated differently after
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King used ethos and pathos. Ethos means appeal to authority. In Dr. King’s letter, he stated the reason for the nonviolence protest after they had waited for more than three hundred and forty years for their constitutional and God giving rights. Dr. King also stated, “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”. After Black Americans waited for years and years without any favorable law and conditions, which will at least be, just, they had to protect because as the saying goes if persuasion fails force is applied, they needed to do sometime in order for the authorities to do something and see their seriousness. Even though black American knew the law would not be in their favor, they wanted the lawmakers and the authorities to negotiate with them for a suitable law, which will be just. Nevertheless, pathos, which means appeal to emotions. Black Americans were tired of waiting, bad thing were happening to their family and hardly answered when being asked by their children” Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?, when colored people first name becomes ‘nigger,’ their middle name becomes ‘boy’ however old they were”, they felt they were forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”. Black Americans felt they were being avoided which was true and they hope something will be done about
King used ethos and pathos. Ethos means appeal to authority. In Dr. King’s letter, he stated the reason for the nonviolence protest after they had waited for more than three hundred and forty years for their constitutional and God giving rights. Dr. King also stated, “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”. After Black Americans waited for years and years without any favorable law and conditions, which will at least be, just, they had to protect because as the saying goes if persuasion fails force is applied, they needed to do sometime in order for the authorities to do something and see their seriousness. Even though black American knew the law would not be in their favor, they wanted the lawmakers and the authorities to negotiate with them for a suitable law, which will be just. Nevertheless, pathos, which means appeal to emotions. Black Americans were tired of waiting, bad thing were happening to their family and hardly answered when being asked by their children” Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?, when colored people first name becomes ‘nigger,’ their middle name becomes ‘boy’ however old they were”, they felt they were forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”. Black Americans felt they were being avoided which was true and they hope something will be done about