Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

King utilizes the rhetorical strategy of ethos to justify his presence in Birmingham to the white clergymen. He was in Birmingham to help the civil rights movement, using peaceful protests. While he resided in jail for parading without a permit he received a letter from a group of clergymen. These clergymen told King that he should not be using such drastic means to achieve his goal of equality. King peacefully replies with his Letter From Birmingham Jail proving to these men that he had every right to be in their city. King identifies himself with the clergymen’s status of religious leader through allusion. He showed he was in the right coming to Birmingham by telling the clergymen that he was one of them. For example when King claims,

For example, when king says, “In our nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.”(King 266) He is mentioning the story of the tea party to relate his “civil disobedience” that the clergymen believe he is causing in their city. He also uses a personal anecdote when he is speaking about how a law can be just but if it is applied wrong it becomes unjust. He gives this example to speak about it, “For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First- Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.”(King 266) King is showing that it is his right as an american citizen to go to any city in the United States and lead a peaceful protest. He uses a final anecdote when he says, “Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages: they made cotton king; they built the homes of

He moves beyond the clergymen’s comprehension of the situation, using syntax to reinforce his unique position. An example of this is when he uses a periodic sentence ending with “...then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” (King 265) It shows that he can understand what it’s like to be in this awful position that the clergymen can not even begin to imagine. This gives him an entitlement to be in Birmingham, he knows what is happening to these people on a personal level. King uses another periodic sentence when he says, “I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together.”(King 273) In this sentence he does not hold off the meaning of the sentence until the very end like in the previous one, but he arranges the sentence in such a way that is very effective. He shows that experiencing these things that have happened to him, and the fellow members of his race, is the only way to understand the true cruelty. Another time King uses syntax is when he says, “It gives the segregator a false sense