Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

The fight over whether or not segregation should be allowed was a long and hard battle that was led by many people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He organized and participated in many nonviolent protests to act against segregation in America. King stated that the reason he was in Birmingham jail was because “injustice was here” (King). After being arrested, he wrote a response to a public statement issued by eight white religious southern leaders. The letter King wrote used imagery, diction, and metaphors to give people insight on the way that African Americans were actually treated by police officers. In his letter, King uses strong imagery to appeal to the reader’s emotions. King uses it to bring forth the parts of the protests that people don’t get to see, such as “angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent” black people. He describes their treatment in city jail to be “ugly and inhumane” (King). King describes it …show more content…
He compares the “jetlike speed” of Asia and Africa’s independence to the “creep at horse-and-buggy pace” of America’s war over segregation. He sets the first objective to something as simple as the “gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (King). King doesn’t want or need the step towards rights for African Americans to be vast; he just wants it to be something. He needs the African people to believe that someday they’ll get a cup of coffee beside a white man or woman and nobody will even notice their skin color. Human progression does not appear out of nowhere; it does not roll in “on the wheels of inevitability” (King). King uses this comparison to show that events won’t take place until someone sets a course and activates the spark that starts a movement. It is up to the “tireless efforts and persistent work” of those who care