With a submissive address of “My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” Dr. King at first recommends that he writes the letter because these men deserve a response to their “sincerely” specified disparagements. In other words, he tramps in details rather than conflict, at least in this part of the letter. To start off the letter as a rant would perhaps have been truthful and justifiable, but it also would have driven against his attempt to change minds. He does not want to startle or upset an audience that might be persuaded to listen to arguments they have not formerly thought-out well. This is not to propose that Dr. King did not actually want white followers or that this is only a bombastic tactic, but his limitation over a topic that clearly moved him is
With a submissive address of “My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” Dr. King at first recommends that he writes the letter because these men deserve a response to their “sincerely” specified disparagements. In other words, he tramps in details rather than conflict, at least in this part of the letter. To start off the letter as a rant would perhaps have been truthful and justifiable, but it also would have driven against his attempt to change minds. He does not want to startle or upset an audience that might be persuaded to listen to arguments they have not formerly thought-out well. This is not to propose that Dr. King did not actually want white followers or that this is only a bombastic tactic, but his limitation over a topic that clearly moved him is