Rhetorical Analysis Of Mlk Letter To Birmingham Jail

Segregation tore apart and destroyed the social justice of the United States. In the hopes to end discrimination Martin Luther King JR, a minister and Civil Rights Activist, fought as Ghandi once did with civil disobedience. After Dr. King had received a letter from the clergy of Birmingham, the city where he was also currently in jailed, accused of being “untimely” and “unwise.” In his response, he argues on page one paragraph four, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” to prove his point where he uses a series of rhetorical strategies such as aphorism, analogy, and homily. Throughout, Dr. King reminds the clergy that he fights for a moral purpose in a place where immoral acts are committed too often. With the use of aphorism he explains that unjustifiable acts do not sit right in his mind and cannot be unbothered by them. He says on page one paragraph four, “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned with what happens in Birmingham.” He refuses to overlook the acts taking place in

King values analogies to show the clergymen that the way Birmingham is living holds back society and further proving “Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” He states on page five paragraph twenty “... law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” Laws are meant to keep peace but the laws of their day made conflict nothing less than inevitable. Today the U.S. truly lives by constitutional views- everyman is created equal. On page five paragraph nineteen he argues “Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” King believes that it is worse for people to avoid the problem then ignorantly wrong. If people avoid problems there is no growth that can be made. Segregation really held back society, today the U.S. is a discrimination free country and one of the