“Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in 1963 by Martin Luther King in response to a public statement of concern written by eight religious white leaders. The purpose of the letter was to first of all to explain to the readers that black people are not going to give up fighting for their rights after so long and also to try and reasonably explain, while appealing to the readers emotion, that the laws the white men are protecting and expressing a great deal of anxiety over are not the Gods natural laws, but man made.

To effectively express his ideas and opinions in this letter, Martin Luther King uses multiple of techniques. In order to win the trust of the reader, he uses the rhetoric ethos. From the beginning of the letter he says that the men he is responding to are “men of genuine goodwill” and needless to mention, politeness is maintained throughout the whole letter. This shows his character, his ethical appeal. Another thing he mentions in the first paragraph of the letter is how he has no time to reply to criticism and he mentions his secretaries- this demonstrates how he is a man of somewhat power and he does not have time to reply to most people however he will respond to this- also contributes to ethos and his character.

Another rhetoric he used throughout the letter is pathos. Starting from paragraph 4 he starts explaining why the Negros can not “wait” anymore. He uses descriptive language (“”stinging arts of segregation”), diction, metaphors and many more techniques in order to appeal to the emotions of the readers. In order to draw out sympathy and understanding from the reader Martin Luther King uses vicious, raw yet real stories. “…and we stull creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter”- even the daily regular gesture of getting coffee is challenging for the colored. This is a propaganda techniques called “Plain Folks” and is used when the writer wants to be identified with the common people of the community and seem as if he is “just another person”. To appeal even more to the emotions of the reader, he tells these horrible examples from the readers point of view so that the reader imagines these things happening to them- “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will drown your sisters and brothers at whim, when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity…” another purpose of this section is perhaps to trigger the colored, and drive their emotions even more so everybody is brave and willing to fight for their power. He also says that his “twenty million Negro brothers” are being smothered in an airtight cage of poverty- builds a sense of togetherness, unity. At one point the letter reads, “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet like speed towards the goal of political independence, and we still creep…” I thought this was to spark fear in the readers minds because he is comparing his nation, America, to other nations and of course given the history of America a lot Americans are competitive.

From the second section of the letter he starts to focus more on reasoning (logos) rather than try to drive out emotions from the reader. In attempt to reason with the white religious leaders, he pulls in many references to the bible. He explains that they are all equal in the eyes of the God, and that all just laws are “uplifting for the human personality”. He also mentions that he would also openly advocate disobeying anti-religious laws if he was suppressed of his religion, and help his Jewish friends no matter what the law says if he was in Germany during WW2 because there is moral laws, and the man written laws have proved themselves to be unreliable in the past. Towards the end of the letter, I sensed that he gets a little more aggressive than before- he says that he is completely fearless in fighting for justice, and at some point he mentions that the colored people have been here before the Pilgrims, and before the Declaration of Independence- they were there from the beginning- “we were here…” “If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands…” Note that every time he says something that is a bit extreme, or might be offensive or the reader might disagree he ends his sentences with “…”

In conclusion, Martin Luther King uses multiple of propaganda and rhetoric techniques in order to effectively communicate his beliefs.