The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was authored by Martin Luther King (1963) while in custody. King references the church leaders as the audience in the first paragraph of the letter. In the article, the clergy term King as a sheer outsider who instigated the demonstrations.
In the letter, King uses narrative in making ethos appeals. In the third paragraph of his letter, King (1963) exonerates himself by giving an analogy of how the biblical prophets and apostle Paul “left their villages” to spread the gospel to the outlying towns (p. 1). King (1963) states that, before carrying out the demonstrations, they carried out a four-phase survey, that is, “collection…negotiation; self-purification; and direct action,” and their findings were that racial injustice had infested the society (p. 1). King used this narrative as a justification for his actions.
King refutes the claims that the demonstrations were unwise by impugning the skewed justice. He cites how he would champion the obeying of the “just laws” but adds that he has the discretion of disobeying the “unjust laws.” He further states how he could not keep calm when the white supremacists were using the law in propagating racial injustice (King, 1963, p. 3). King refutes the claim that he paraded people without a permit by saying that the allegations were treacherous to deny people the privilege of holding peaceful demonstrations.
I approve of the opinions of my two classmates since they are factual and admissible. Firstly, King addresses the clergy terming him an outsider and accusing him of orchestrating unwise protests. My peers’ answer to how King uses ethos appeal includes his statement of how racists rebuked the demonstrations on the pretext of concern over the demonstrators’ “willingness to break the law.” Additionally, King (1963) holds that those who advocate for justice must rebuke any law that “degrades human personality” (p. 3). Their response regarding how King is refuting is plausible. Indeed, Adolf Hitler rose to be an infamous dictator who machinated “illegal” activities (King, 1963, p. 4). King is refuting where he states that laws are just in their formulation but unjust during application. My peers’ answers lack the backing of why King was exasperated by the clergy’s basis of calling him an outsider. They can add depth to their analysis of the antagonism between the King and the clergy.
Reference
King, M. L. (1963). Letter from a Birmingham jail (1963). Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A brief history with documents. Web.