Promoters of civil rights, justice and peace have long used a number of non-violent methods of promoting and justifying their cause. With an objective of realizing and achieving their goals of freedom and justice for all. Martin Luther King junior was the most outspoken civil rights activist in the United States of America’s journey towards achieving the end of racism and the beginning of equality among the dominant whites and the minority blacks in the United States. Doctor King’s angle of using logos, pathos and ethos during his quest for equality, justice and peace as analyzed below made him a champion of civil rights not only in the United States but across the whole world. This paper focusing on one of Doctor King’s works ‘letter from a Birmingham jail,’ is going to give more insight to Doctor Kings argument and quest towards justice and equality among the minority blacks and the white oppressors in the united states of America.
Doctor Martin Luther King junior wrote this letter from a prison cell in Birmingham in the year 1963. When the African Americans were fighting for social justice and equality with the whites using nonviolent means to fight segregation. The purpose of the letter was to address the eight white clergymen who had condemned his actions in the Birmingham protest calling them “unwise and untimely.”(Letter from Birmingham, 1). He was using this letter to inform them that the demonstration at that time was necessary and “there is always no time that is always a convenient time… Time in itself is neutral and what makes the difference is whether it is used constructively or destructively.”(Letter from Birmingham, 8). He uses persuasive and condemnatory tones so as to try and influence the readers. By taking the reader through an emotional moment when he describes how one can find himself tongue twisted when his

Daughter asks him “why she cannot go to an amusement park advertised on television and tears welling up in his daughter’s eyes when he tells her that fun town is closed to colored children.”(Letter from Birmingham, 4). This sends the reader to an emotional moment because people feel more sympathy for children, no child is supposed to cry either black or white because of their innocence. His description of the cruel behavior of police towards black people in prison makes his readers guilty and sad.
Doctor King also uses ethos to put forward his reputation, trustworthiness and credentials in laying out this argument. By stating that he has the “honor of serving as president of southern Christian leadership conference,” (letter from Birmingham, 1), helps in building up his credibility, this establishes his authority and respects both as a minister and representative of the African Americans and establishes equality between him and the eight clergymen. This is in order to establish credibility to his audience and to erasing all potential condescendence that might arise from his critiques. The use of this is to show that he is a knowledgeable and reasonable. Especially when he justifies his argument against waiting no longer by citing that the” African Americans have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for their God given rights and freedom.”(Letter from Birmingham, 4). His experience comes in when he quotes historic moments like the Nazi Germany where Adolf Hitler killed many Jews while justifying it as legal at the same time making it illegal or against the law to give refuge and comfort to any Jews at that time. This historical information helps in proving his point and getting people to understand his point better. Doctor King is also moral especially when he says that we must see the need for non-violence and embracing peace, not in the “notion of having a negative peace full of tension instead having positive peace that is the presence of justice.”(Letter from Birmingham, 8).
Doctor King also uses logic to justify why his contemporaries compel with the authority of God. He quotes so many prominent philosophers like Socrates so as to affirm his use of logic. He demonstrates this by explaining the fairness of the law, by quoting Saint Thomas of Aquinas. Doctor King also uses logic to justify his argument against the clergy by explaining why he and the other demonstrators had no alternative except to prepare for direct action. His use of examples like by quoting Thomas Jefferson “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal…”(letter from Birmingham, 18) By using this famous person with the utmost respect in society is an appeal to authority and since he thinks so then the argument must be true. His use of logic is also evident in his belief, in the moral code of God. By stating that the African Americans “have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional god given rights” (letter from Birmingham, 8). This points out that the struggle is not only for what is legal but also for what is morally right. This can be seen multiple times throughout his letter to affirm his argument. Doctor King also states clearly that the working together of people with God and merely not time that will bring about change this also proves the point that waiting can never cause change to occur.
In conclusion, Doctor Martin Luther King Junior uses Aristotle’s rhetorical devices of logos, pathos and ethos to put across his argument. These elements guide him in making an effective argument, because he sought to his claims logically with clarity and passion. This helped in passing his message across to the clergymen and the country as a whole through publication and also defending his actions and ideals. The power behind the words in this letter hopefully changed the mindsets of the readers across the country. Although faced with many challenges and obstacles Doctor King was never discouraged but kept on having more determination and strength through perseverance towards achieving his goal of African Americans emancipation.

Works cited

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “letter from Birmingham jail.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1854-66. Print.