Martin Luther King Jr. was a powerful civil rights leader and set the tone for many nonviolent equality movements. Events in Birmingham, Alabama, thoroughly the most segregated city in the United States, lead to nonviolent demonstrations, which then gave rise to hostile police conduct. The individuals of the protests were apprehended, including Martin Luther King Jr.. Alabama clergymen then composed a letter addressing the racial unrest in Birmingham, and Martin Luther King Jr. reciprocated with his own letter justifying the protestors actions. To justify the Birmingham demonstrations and appeal to his audience of both blacks and whites, Martin Luther King Jr. effectively builds pathos with the use of various rhetorical strategies.
King evokes …show more content…
Various examples of racism and discrimination are seen in King’s letter, which in turn appeal to the emotions of his audience. These illustrations show the state of hopelessness and consistent disappointments for the negroes, which evokes sympathy. Examples show the white audience specific wrongdoings that justify the need for demonstrations. In part of King’s long periodic sentence, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society” (5), he uses examples that appeal strongly to pathos, and that stimulate feelings of disgust and empathy. King states another account where, “Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts” (3). Not only are they being beaten physically, mentally, and emotionally, but they also have no way of changing the treatment through just law. King points these examples out to account for why they are resorting to demonstrations and to justify why they are fighting for genuine