Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is one his many writings on segregation and racial inequality towards blacks in the southern American states. While his actions may not have had much success at first during the 1960’s what made his arguments so powerful was his use of pathos and logos. Within the first few paragraphs of King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail establishes his credibility using logos. At the start of the second paragraph King inscribes that the reason he is in Birmingham is due to the influence of “outsiders coming in.” He goes on to state that he isn’t an outsider by saying that he has had the honor to serve as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that operates in every southern state, with the headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. King goes further by declaring that he is in Birmingham because he has organizational ties there. King refers to himself as a “profit” (1)
He exclaims that for years every person who has been segregated has heard the word “Wait!” and that this “Wait!” has always meant “Never” (2). King reveals that he has seen violent mobs lynch mothers and fathers at will and drown sisters and brothers at whim. He has seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and kill. He has seen a majority of twenty million people being smothered in an airtight cage of poverty due to segregation. King knows what is like to be harried by day, haunted by night, living at a tiptoe stance being plagued with inner fears and outer resentments all while fighting a sense of “nobodiness” (3). King articulates that this is why it is difficult to do any waiting when it comes to being segregated. (2-3). While Letter from Birmingham Jail may not have been a success at the time it was written, there’s no mistake that King’s masterful use of pathos and logos helped spread awareness to the cause of