Kings Letter from Birmingham JailThe late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a celebrated member of the clergy, civil rights activist and a leader who championed for the just and equal representation and treatment of all different races that make up the United States of America. His efforts ended him in jail for taking part in what was termed as an illegitimate Birmingham campaign. Prior to his arrest, he had been serving as the individual in charge of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was this position that made an Alabama rights advocacy group to put him into consideration and request for his involvement in what they termed as a nonviolent direct-action program. True to his cause and calling, he did not decline the offer but accepted it and showed up for the intended march. He arrived at the venue together with other faithful followers of the movement and together they joined The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The groups systematically planned and carried out peaceful rallies aimed at objecting to the unjust and inhumane racial segregation that was evident in Birmingham, Alabama. The government did not however, recognize this peaceful protest as legal and therefore arrested and jailed all the men that took part in the rally including Dr. King and it in jail that he wrote a letter addressing specific issues.After the arrests, a group comprising of eight church leaders from Alabama issued out a testimonial to the general public basically advising other black men from affiliating themselves with Dr. King and any other person that had been jailed during the Alabama protests. After the four clergymen had issued out their statement, Dr. King wrote a letter approximately four days later in response to the clergymens statement. His letter was aimed at making his ideas and point known to the clergymen in addition to other moderate whites. Furthermore, King wanted to explain the need for civil rights through the use of reason, principles, and sentiment. Dr. King creatively and intelligently uses language and rhetoric to criticize the eight clergymen and other white moderates who sided with the clergymen. The letter adorns reason and sentiment with the incorporation of imagery to efficiently bring out his views to the general public who can be inferred to be his audience.Dr. King commences his message with sentiments directed towards the eight members of the church. He ironically criticizes their terming of his actions as being unwise and untimely (King 1856). He continues to address them by asserting that, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms (King 1856). Dr. King gives a symbolism of his capture and imprisonment to that depicted in the bible of the apostles who were imprisoned due to their actions of trying to bring liberty to the captives using the word of God. This comparison shows that he was in the process of preaching deliverance and freedom to the entire world and helping Alabama overcome its segregation issues was just one of them.He objects to what the clergy men were terming him as an outsider and was interfering with the natural way of life of Alabama. He defends himself by saying, Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds (King 1857). He says that being a citizen of the United States of America, he is entitled to feel offended by whatever is happening in his country and has every right to react to it. He defended his involvement in Alabama claiming that his organization was a nationwide organization and was not restricted to a certain state.In fact, it was the organizations involvement with the Alabama Christian Leadership Conference that had brought him into the state of Alabama. He argued in the letter that the clergymens claims that he was causing trouble in the usually calm city instead of pursuing peaceful meant that such as negotiations were completely unfounded. This is because the Alabama Christian Leadership Conference had already pursued peaceful means such as trying to reach an amicable settlement with the citys administration but to no avail. All the response that the organization received was mere fake and empty promises and yet no action was taken in regards to the demands.This showed that the Alabama Christian Leadership Conference pursuance of dialogue as a peaceful means was utterly useless and that is why they resolved into street protests. King uses logic to highlight the fact that the clergymen were being prejudiced against the Alabama Christian Leadership Conference and were acting unjustly. They were not considering the facts from both sides of the divide. He justified the Alabama Christian Leadership Conference pursuance of non violent action through street protests by saying, Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever (King 1858). This showed that when dialogue failed, other means had to be pursued as freedom from oppression was inevitable. King argued in his letter by using assertions founded on academic and spiritual logic that any layman would find hard to contest. He intelligently argues on same scholarly and religious level as the clergymen to show that they were being biased and disillusioned on the racial issues plaguing the state. Dr. King uses carefully crafted words and phrases in his argument with the clergymen and is able to close his argument with them and be able to appeal to the rest of the population.He employs the use of imagery, symbolism and non-religious sentiments in order to communicate more easily to the inhabitants who are not necessarily Christians. This makes his appeal more appreciable as it relates to the rest of the population. In his letter, he becomes more philosophical in a secular sense by saying:Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood (King 1860).This reveals his intelligence in addressing his issues to peoples from different walks of life yet still remaining loyal to the same topic in focus.He intelligently addresses the clergymen as he commences his letter but later progresses to address other people through the use of tonal and language changes. He explains the drawbacks that are brought about by racial segregation to both moderate whites and fellow black men in his poignant segments. He uses descriptive imagery to effectively paint clear the picture of the racial segregation to his audience who happen to be ignorant of the experiences of such forms of prejudice. He says,You have seen hate-filled police curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sistersyou suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television (King 1862).This is useful in painting a clear picture of racial prejudice especially to the white populace who generally have never had a first hand experience on racial segregation. He engages his audience by arousing their emotions through the use of strong words.He engaged the congregation and made them identify with his predicament through his vivid imagery and loaded words in his description of his personal accounts by narrating to them stories that told on what he had underwent in the past. This helped paint a clear picture to the recipients of the letter and draw out their deepest emotions. He engages the WASP community through his effective utilization of reason by reminding them of their protests and rebellion against the inhuman and unfair oppression that they received under the British and the Nazi regimes. This enables the WASP community to understand where he was coming from and the reasons for his activism by identifying with his predicaments as they had also experienced the same.Works CitedKing, Martin Luther, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. . Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1854-1866. Print.