Ethos, Pathos, and LogosMaybe it was all the preachin'. Maybe it was all the schoolin'. Whatever it was, Dr. King knew how to rhetoric the you-know-what out of speeches. There's a little bit of eve...

Epistle"Letter from Birmingham Jail" is kind of like an essay, a pamphlet, and a manifesto rolled into one. It has a clear message and rhetorical goal (essay), it's aiming to garner support and pol...

Righteous, MeasuredMost of Dr. King's speeches, interviews, and writings are both righteous and measured, and "Letter from Birmingham Jail" epitomizes that kind of tone. It's righteous, not only in...

InspirationalSaying that Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspirational is like saying that water is wet.Dr. King himself was inspired by his "Dream" for a better America, by his religious vision for a...

It was published in The Atlantic as "The Negro is Your Brother," published in some places as "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" or "Letter From Birmingham City Jail," and sometimes known as "that famo...

Right off the bat, Dr. King lets us know he's in jail at the moment. He says that, while he doesn't usually answer criticism, he's making an exception in this case because his interlocutors are "me...

The last few paragraphs of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" show MLK being humble and conciliatory. Like ya do, Dr. King.He apologizes for the length of the text and for taking up so much time from hi...

(4) Base CampDr. King was a highly intelligent man. He was well-read, studious, and a scholarly theologian. He was straight up erudite. So there are some heavy-hitting, high-score scrabble words in...

In-Text ReferencesLiterary and Philosophical ReferencesSocrates (9, 17, 21)Reinhold Niebuhr (10)Unknown author, "Justice too long delayed is justice denied." (11)St Augustine, On Free Choice of the...

Dr. King improvised the most famous part of his most famous speech. As we all know, sometimes you've just got to wing it. (Source)King got a C in public speaking during his first year in seminary....