After reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail," perform a rhetorical analysis.
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., the practical leader of the black civil rights movement of the 1960s and the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, strives to defend his actions and the actions of his movement, as well as addressing the concerns of Christian clergy and white moderates. This letter was written in response to a statement circulated by eight Birmingham clergymen that had criticized the Birmingham protests instigated and led by King Jr., and so, in writing on the topic of civil disobedience and its modern application, King Jr. employs several rhetorical strategies designed to appeal to that specific audience. Rhetorical strategies of religious and biblical allusion, logical reasoning, and tactics of debate are utilized to great effect by King Jr.
As this is a letter, King Jr. begins by directly addressing the clergy and introducing himself; offering background of the Birmingham protests and his participation in the civil rights movement. At the very start, he begins his religious allusions and religious appeal, describing the journey of the Apostle Paul from Tarsus and into the Greco-Roman world. “Like Paul,” he writes, “I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” In comparing the call for aid by the Macedonians implicitly to the plight of the black race of America, Martin Luther King Jr. curries religious sympathy. In effect, King Jr. begins to offer, through his religious and biblical allusion, an olive branch to the clergymen he writes to; the point he strives to make is that they can all be on the same side, the same Christian, moral side. This is a trend that continues throughout the essay.
In the body of his letter are logical reasoning and tactics of debate. “In any nonviolent campaign, there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham,” writes King Jr., defending the actions taking by his movement by the simple logic that all has been done that can be done prior to the direct action that was perpetrated. This is an appeal to the reason of the audience to consider the validity of the Civil Rights Movement. An effective tactic of debate is also utilized by King Jr., connecting back to the religious appeal: “You may well ask: ‘Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action.” This phraseology embodies a very useful strategy that gently, subconsciously moves the audience towards agreement with the author, gradually ameliorating the debate by shifting the two parties to what is, by the argument of the author, really the same side. King Jr. describes them as both being on the same side, making them more receptive to his message; this is accomplished throughout the essay through his usage of sympathetic religious allusion, as well. “...one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all,’” writes King Jr. Again, religious allusion is utilized here, being that St. Augustine was an influential North African bishop, simultaneously appealing to the religious sensibilities of the audience while also offering an argument in favor of King Jr.’s platform that unjust laws should be disobeyed. Parallel structure is later employed in the same vein, “Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates...Isn’t this like condemning Jesus…?” asks King Jr. of the rationality of blaming the Civil Rights Movement for violence in Birmingham. Once more, historical figures and context are alluded to and compared to the Civil Rights Movement, transferring the legitimacy of those historical characters’ struggles to the struggles of King Jr. Such strategies are employed throughout the entirety of the essay, further strengthening his arguments.
The conclusion of the letter sees King Jr. adopt what appears to be a passive-aggressive tone, indirectly criticizing the behaviour of the clergymen that he had written to. “I wish you had commended the Negro demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation,” he writes, following such a chastisement with the declaration that, “One day the South will recognize its real heroes.” King Jr. makes it apparent here to his audience that he is secure in willful in his beliefs; he has thought long and hard on his position and found it compelling and reasonable, knowing that the future is a future where his vision will thrive. It is then, therefore, that he shows himself as justified in taking a chastising, critical tone towards the audience, taking the moral high ground. “If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.” Throughout the course of his correspondence, he has been nothing but polite in his writing, despite taking a strong tone at several points. Utilizing this polite, nigh-apologetic language to thinly mask the true meaning of his words gives King Jr. moral credibility, displaying himself as the moral superior to those in the audience who would share his correspondence with the public and earning the respect of those in the audience who are reasonable men. Taking the high ground in this regard is a bold move, but it is even more bold to take the high ground and then offer to give it up, opening the platform to criticism; it was a risky move that paid off for King Jr. in the end.
Rhetorical strategies are of great value in any field, particularly the field in which King Jr. involved himself; understanding when and where to employ what strategies was key to his success as a Reverend and Civil Rights leader, and nowhere more apparent is his skill than in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Here, King Jr. successfully employs rhetorical appeals to religious sensibility, emotion, reason, and credibility; he supports his arguments with historical examples and allusions; and he practices tactics of debate designed to subconsciously shift the audience towards acceptance of his platform.