MLK Letter

While Martin Luther King Jr. was in the Birmingham Jail, he received a lot of letters from people criticizing the so-called uprising he had created. Martin Luther King responded to one letter though in particular with a letter of his own, now it is known as the Letter from Birmingham. The clergymen had criticized him, so he decided they were a good group to respond to. The exigence of his letter is that he had to defend himself about why he was organizing the demonstrations and why they were ok. He wanted to make sure that the clergymen realized his demonstrations were not extreme like they accused, and show everyone involved in the civil rights movement that his actions were for a good cause.

Martin Luther King establishes his ethos by being relatable and referring to everything he knew about that movement. In order to make sure everyone felt like they could relate to him, Martin Luther King says, "I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers." This makes it seem like he understands all religions and he wants them to be able to be civil and work together. To further how relatable he was, he used a very sincere tone. He was not attacking the reader or the clergymen, so the reader felt comfortable and considered what he was writing.

The letter had very good kairos too. The demonstrations and other civil rights movements had been happening very frequently. He was put in jail due to the events and criticized for what had been happening so he created a great time for him to defend himself. The civil rights movement was a very popular issue at the time and Martin Luther King was really well known so his letter would be of a lot of interest to the public. The clergymen would also be interested considering they took their time to criticize King.