Restraint In Dr. King's Letter

In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., he writes to defend himselfagainst the clergymen’s accusations in which he explains his motive on his civil rightsdemonstrations and strives to justify the desperate needs for nonviolent action in the CivilRights Movement. His primary audience throughout the letter was to the religious leaders as hewas responding to an open letter for criticism, whereas the secondary audiences are whitemoderates and the religious population. Dr King’s letter addresses that the white attitudestowards African Americans and the Civil Rights Movements in the 1960s were hostile as theywere unable to accept the movement, especially in the South. Throughout the letter, he usesvarious literary and rhetorical

King directly responds to the points brought up by the clergymen in their letter and always backs up his argument with evidence. He objectively uses rhetorical questions to provoke the clergymen to consider his own ideas on the points raised in their letter. He aims to put turn a negative situation, into a positive one by hoping that positive social change can come out of a negative situation such as

In Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King writes to the clergymen to defend his nonviolent actions. He goes on to show that his actions are justified and that it's time to move forward from all the injustices toward African-American people just because of the colors of their skin. Dr.King defends his peaceful protests and stated that they can no longer wait, and that is not right that clergymen think they should wait, when they have not been in the position and have felt the discrimination. Dr. King uses emotional, ethical and, logical appeal to convince the clergymen that his actions are wise and justified. Dr. King uses emotional appeal, to try to persuade the clergymen that he is not an extremist as it is being said he is.

King’s argument begins with him writing back to the clergymen who sent him “The Public Statement” who have criticized the demonstrations King was leading in Birmingham. They told King that he should wait until racial injustice was taken care of, that he was an outsider who had no right to be there, and his actions were causing violence. King had a right to argue for black rights but this was overlooked by the white clergymen. King’s arguments were more valid than anything the clergymen could possibly think of.

King then shifts from social injustice to political injustice, calling the laws into question. He states how the clergymen were anxious over King and his followers “willingness to break laws,” when the majority of people fail to obey the 1954 ruling of the Supreme Court that outlawed segregation in public schools.” King Jr. then claims there are two types of laws: just and unjust. He defines both laws and describes how each individual has the responsibility to uphold just laws and dismiss unjust laws. He then specifically speaks about segregation and how it is an unjust act.

The purpose of this letter is that Martin Luther King is trying to convince the clergymen that him and his “people” demonstrated because it was absolutely necessary at that time. When doing this, he uses condemnatory and persuasive tones to try to influence the reader to agree with him. Martin Luther King provides a valid argument using Logos, Pathos, and Ethos throughout his piece. King uses logos in his letter to backup his counter argument against the clergymen.

On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to seven, white clergymen as a response to their criticisms of King’s approach to tackle segregation and other racial issues in Birmingham, Alabama. Coincidentally, King was also a clergyman—a clergyman with tons of influence as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that has 85 affiliated groups. Throughout his letter, King’s use of allusions both of historical and religious significance supports King’s position as a highly influential and educated clergyman, provide the inspirations behind King’s strategy of nonviolence, and a strong ethos to criticize his fellow clergymen who act as bystanders. In the beginning of King’s letter, the first thing he does is to address his own credibility the seven clergymen questioned.

In his letter, written in Birmingham City Jail on 16th April, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. touches a serious problem, which is inequality between white and black people; it is a response to a clergymen statement about activities that took place in their times. The church called them „unwise and untimely” and King decided to answer to this criticism, although he normally would not do that, as he received many hateful and judgmental comments on his actions and himself and it would have taken a lot of time and effort to notice all of them. First of all, the clergymen talk about how badly in time are presented those activities when they should have been more concerned about what they actually want to change. Spending time on debating about how

King starts this by adding to his letter by challenging the claim that their actions “must be condemned because they precipitate violence” (5).King displays that the statement blames the demonstrators, which he condemns illogical due to lack of valid support. He then productively demonstrates juxtaposition and compares this claim to “condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery”, or “condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock”, or even “condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucification” (6). Providing these concrete ideas, King leaves his listeners no room for questioning his validity with his statements. He leaves the clergymen with a solid idea of what his mission for Civil Right is. By challenging the statement and proving otherwise, King adequately justifies his claim to the clergymen that he is not responsible for precipitating any

1. What Is the Importance of the Sun Dance Ceremony? What Is Its Function in the Community? It is the sacred ritual which is performed by Native Americans as a way of saying to the gods “we have nothing to give but our bodies.”

King writes this letter to the clergymen in an assertive and sensible tone without making his views seem confrontational. By doing this, he manages to prove his point clearly while being polite to the clergymen. He knows he doesn’t want to lose his audience because he believes his message is important. Also, his politeness shows that he always takes a nonviolent and non-aggressive approach to his cause, even verbally. For example, Dr. King states, “I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out.

The rhetorical situation for the letters by the eight white clergymen and King begins with rallying cries to further the civil rights movement. This was a result of the segregation and injustice that was still occurring in Alabama. King was jailed for participating in a march on Good Friday and further protest ensued. After this instance black and white leaders began to negotiate terms to end segregation. The idea behind this is that America had refused to allow everyone the American dream, and that we were not upholding the ideas we supposedly held so dear.

uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos to demonstrate his credibility on the issue of racial discrimination and injustice. Starting off the letter with “My dear fellow clergymen,” King puts himself in the same status as the clergymen (1). When King pens this, he expresses that the clergymen are no better than he, and he no better than they. King still shows his respect by writing that he feels the clergymen “are men of of genuine good will” and their “criticisms are sincerely set forth” (1). Going on further, King writes that beyond the “organizational ties” in Birmingham, he remains “because injustice is here” (1).

At the end of his letter he addresses the clergymen " I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergymen and a Christian brother" (paragraph 7). This statement makes a claim the king wants to meet these seven clergymen in person and speak about the issues he wrote in this letter. Another rhetorical tool king uses in his letter are similes. This rhetorical tool helps king compare two things and address the point as he sees it. " Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek" (paragraph 3).

His biblical reference had a huge role in this letter to enlighten the people. Martin Luther King within 3 paragraph starts expressing his love for the church and how they capture everything he believes in. Then follows on to the next paragraph saying it's perfect but in Birmingham, he had hoped maybe in the church there be a difference. In the 3rd paragraph he finally states ‘I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.’” He blames that is the church fault for not enlighten its community as leaders.