Martin Luther King Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis

Martin Luther King was arrested and taken to jail in Birmingham for protesting for their Birmingham campaign. While in prison he got to read a newspaper which had a letter that several priests wrote about him. In this letter they were judging King and his actions. King then wrote them a letter back trying to persuade them about how discrimination towards them should be stopped. In this letter King used many techniques to persuade his readers like emotional, logical, and credible statements. In the beginning of his letter Martin Luther King explains how he can 't answer all the criticisms that are on his desk because his secretaries would not have time for other things. This gives automatically the impression that he is a successful …show more content…
He tells his audience how it feels for his daughter to know she can 't go to an amusement park, “and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children”(MLK, 505). He uses emotional appeal to persuade his readers. Using his daughter as an example is great, because some people that read this letter had kids too. They wouldn 't want to explain to their kids why they are not allowed to go somewhere where all other kids are at. It can hurt them a lot especially because they do not understand yet about racism and hate. This can make some people change their mind about racism because they forget colored people have kids just like them. All parents want what is best for their …show more content…
He states how the priest applauded the Birmingham police for their excellent job. However, MLK does not agree with this and he kindly explains why. He never uses inappropriate language while disagreeing. Using appropriate language is important because if not your message could be lost. MLK does not think they did a great job because the police used violence towards black people for no reason. He used real life examples to back him up. “If you were to observe them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys...” this is a vivid and emotional example (MLK, 513). Treating older people awfully is never correct and especially children, many people would not want this for their grandparents or kids. This gives us an idea that police are rude to all black people no matter what age they were. Police treated white people with respect and kept them safe, which gave white people a good idea of them. Yet most people didn 't realize how badly they treated blacks just because of their color. When reading all his examples of how poorly they were treating black people, it made me want to do something about it. I am sure when people read this back then it also made them want to defend