Rhetoric Analysis of MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail

Introduction: Purpose and Audience of the Letter

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is written to his "fellow clergymen" and is meant to serve as a rebuttal to their charges that his protests, which have landed him in jail, are "unwise and untimely" (King, Jr.). The actions that King's confreres deem as unwise are his protests — his acts of civil disobedience — in pursuit of civil rights. The letter is meant to be a persuasive argument in defense of his actions as a protestor in Birmingham, Alabama. Being an epistolary rebuttal, its audience is not confined to the addressees but may be said to include anyone who might gain access to the letter, whether through private or public means. The secondary audience would be anyone interested in understanding King's motivation for going to Birmingham and participating in the protests. The main idea of the letter is to show how he is justified in taking the actions that led to his arrest. This paper describes and analyzes the rhetoric that King utilizes in his letter.

Establishing Credibility and Authority

King first declares that he is answering the criticism not because it is criticism, but because the critics are men whom he believes to be of "good will" (King, Jr.). By responding, he is honoring them and their reputations. This gives credibility to his letter, situating it in a friendly and respectful context. Not only does this establish goodwill, but so too does his reason for being in Alabama in the first place: King places his credentials as a Southern "insider" at the fore, stating, "I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference…with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia…[and] affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights" (King, Jr.). Thus, King asserts his position as a leader of the community — not an "outsider," as he has been called. This rhetoric supplies him with the degree of authority necessary to make a subsequently convincing argument.

King's intention is to defend himself against the criticism of being unwise and untimely, and he does so by showing that from the first he was "invited" to Alabama and has "organizational ties" to the region. However, King ramps up his argument by appealing to pathos, stating that "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here" — as though he were a crusader against injustice (King, Jr.). He compares himself to the "prophets of the eighth century" who crusaded in towns that were not their own (King, Jr.). Being in Atlanta, he nonetheless feels a kinship for those in Alabama. In fact, no American can ever be branded an outsider when he is in America, states King. All of these points are made to underscore his sense of inclusion and leadership, rather than the sense conveyed by his critics — that he is an agitator and self-promoter.

Works Cited

King, Jr., Martin Luther. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." African Studies Center [University]. Web. 24 Apr 2015.