![]() ![]() So he gives a vivid picture of what Black Americans have to go through in the segregated South.…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?" (12)This bit really gets to the heart of any parent-or anyone who loves children, really. In order for MLK's argument to make sense, you have to understand why the situation is unjust. King's other speeches and works were specifically anchored on appeals to emotion and inspiration, the major moments of pathos in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" come in the parts about the suffering of the African American community. Talk about the ethical high ground.He also acknowledges the sincerity and status of the clergymen who wrote the letter he's responding to, respecting their credibility as men of good will who are all knowledgeable about Bible teachings.PathosAlthough many of Dr. He takes America's highest cultural ideals seriously.He also references a dozen historical heavyweights, from Abraham Lincoln (24), to Paul of Tarsus (3, 24), to Socrates (9, 17, 21), to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (17) (they don't make names like they used to), arguing that he and his followers are in this lineage of freedom fighters, countercultural visionaries, and righteous sufferers of persecution. But his ethical standing is implied by the way he frames his argument and stakes his claim on a moral truth higher than local laws and ordinances. He doesn't claim to be the foremost authority on Jesus or the greatest political strategist of all time, for instance. King makes an appeal to his readers' hearts and heads while alluding to the moral authority of the Christian tradition, American ideals, and the collective suffering of the African American community.Let's check out each one more closely.EthosAside from introducing himself as the president of the SCLC, Dr. There's a little bit of everything in "Letter from Birmingham Jail": Dr. King knew how to rhetoric the you-know-what out of speeches. ![]() SCLC differed from organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in that it operated as an umbrella organization of affiliates.RhetoricEthos, Pathos, and LogosMaybe it was all the preachin'. Under the leadership of King, the organization utilized the power and independence of black churches as the strength of its activities. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established in 1957 to coordinate the action of local protest groups throughout the South. ![]() Southern Christian Leadership Conference. When King worked with local groups such as the ACHMR, he often became the focus of media attention, resulting in local segregationists viewing him and SCLC as outsiders who were disrupting their community. During the 1950s and 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South with strict city ordinances that made it unlawful for different races to mix and mingle in almost all social settings.īecause the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a national organization that worked to support local, grassroots campaigns for civil rights, they wee often accused of being outside agitators. Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative of polishing it for publication.".īirmingham was the largest city in Alabama with a population of approximately 225,000. Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly Negro trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me. Ramage and the Reverend Earl Stallings) was composed under somewhat constricting circumstances. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. "This response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama (Bishop C. ![]()
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