Ahnna Randolph

Ms Conner

Honors English 3

9/25/19

Fears of King Jr

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of

density, whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”(King Jr.). In the year 1963, in

a small Birmingham jail cell King Jr. was writing to the white moderates that have

helped cause the injustice. The injustice was first started when segregation started to

spread all around Alambama. Merchants made promises that the humiliating racial

signs will come down, but instead they stayed up and mocked the African Americans.

King Jr. utilizes pathos in his letter to put fear into the white moderates and convince

them to do something about the injustice. KIng Jr. wants the white moderates to realize

that injustices still exists and engulfs the small racist town of Birmingham

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King constructs appeal to

emotion to convince white moderates that their silence leads to lives being destroyed,

physically and mentally when they see the racial signs. White moderates have led

African Americans adjusting to segregation. Moreover, the fear of not going “jetlike

speed”towards desegregation, like the rest of the world, including Asia and Africa will

cause the United States to drop in global standings.

King Jr. appeals to pathos that the white moderates are causing African

Americans of all ages to have no hope and to feel humiliation when they see the signs
that say “ No Colored People Allowed”. In paragraph 7 of “Letter from a Birmingham

Jail,” King accuses the white moderates of being responsible for not taking action for the

humiliation placed around cities. In order to convey his message, King expresses his

thoughts on what the racial signs have done to the African Americans:

As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a

broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As

in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of

deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare

for direct action. (King Jr. 2)

King Jr. describes how the white moderates “blasted” the hopes of all African Americans

who have fought to fix the injustice. King uses pathos by using the words “victims of a

broken promises” these broken promises had lead to people giving up on stopping the

segregation. He uses ethos to explain that they need to prepare for direct action without

doing any harm. In other cases harm would be pushed, but being peaceful was their

best plan to succeed. King Jr. appeals to pathos by reminding the white moderates that

the churches are standing alone. In paragraph 29 of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”

King continues to remind the white moderates and the church why he is here in

Birmingham, “In spite of my shattered dreams, i came to Birmingham with the hope that

the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of

our cases and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our

just grievances could reach the power structure” (King Jr. 8). In the letter, King appeals

to pathos once again when he recognizes the shattered dreams of the African

Americans. By explaining the feelings of segregation and how the justice of their cause
isn’t getting the attention it deserves. He wants the white moderates them to understand

the struggle and to feel the disappointment of every African American man, woman, and

child.

King Jr. appeals to pathos by recognizing how the rest of the world is moving and

noticing how the United States is responding to the segregation problems. He does this

by explaining how the United States is moving at a “buggy pace” towards fixing

segregation. In paragraph 12 of “Letter from Birmingham Jail”,” King accuses the United

States of falling down the global standings. In order to convey his message, King Jr.

expresses his feelings about his children and his people:

The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining

political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining

a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never

felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait,” but when you have seen

vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and

brothers at whim. (King Jr. 3)

King Jr. describes how the “sting darts” of segregation have lead the United

States into a downfall. If the other parts of the world see how they were handling the

situation it would of lead to no one wanting to try to negotiate with the United States.

When Kennedy was president of the United States he felt the pressure of the rest of the

world on his shoulders. The rest of the world was always watching, if the United States

needed help in a certain situation they would leave us behind in a blink of an eye. The

African Americans got people to listen and got the word out by sitting at the “lunch

counter” in Woolworth’s. This act of civil disobedience is a good example of what King
Jr. wanted the African Americans to do. King Jr. expresses pathos once again by

mentioning part of the world that had its own problems with segregation. In paragraph

19 King Jr. mentions Germany and Hungary and what they did to express what's right

and wrong:

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in

Germany was ‘legal’ and everything that Hungarian freedom

fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’. It was ‘illegal’ to aid and

comfort to a Jew in Hilters Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I

lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my

Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where

certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would

openly advocate disobeying that country's anti religious laws.(King

Jr. 5)

King describes how the world is looking at domestic affairs by mentioning was was

“legal” and “illegal” back east including Germany and Hungary. He advocates to

disobeying the “communist” rules to aid his brothers. King Jr. along with the rest of the

world has noticed what Alabama and Georgia have been doing. They haven’t tried to fix

the segregation problems, Kennedy hasn’t helped ethier. If the world stops helping the

United States prosper we will never get anywhere near any goals we have for the

future.
By revealing how it feels when the “vicious” mobs come towards you and your family

reveals the pathos in the letter. His use of pathos reveals the disappointment that the

African Americans are feeling, but also the world is feeling the same disappointment.

King continues to explain the pain and agony of the African Americans in paragraph 12

by stating:

When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your

speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old

daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has

been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes

when she is told that funtown is closed to colored children, and see

ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her mental sky,

and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an

unconscious bitterness towards white people. (King Jr. 12)

In this quote, King expresses pathos to find the soft spots of the white moderates by

mentioning his beloved child. By expressing the “ominous clouds” she feels when she is

told she can’t go to an amusement park. Then he establishes a “bitterness” feel when

she thinks of a white person. The segregation is causing young children to form a hate

and bitterness towards white adults. King Jr. focuses on pathos to force the problem

onto white moderates and get them to do something to fix the thoughts the rest of the

world has on the United States and to fix the minds of developing children who still has

years to live. There is no more time to waste, the more time that goes by, the more we

will go down the global ladder.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King constructs appeal to

emotion to convince white moderates that their silence leads to lives being destroyed,

physically and mentally when they see the racial signs. Moreover, the fear of not going

“jetlike speed” towards desegregation, like the rest of the world, including Asia and

Africa will cause the United States to drop in global standings. The lives of children are

being affected and changed when they see the signs and the way white people act

towards their parents. When one African American is affected, it will affect every single

one. Everyone is all tied together with one single “garment” and it still shows today. The

significance of King Jr’s. letter was that he wrote it in a small jail cell and he wasn’t

pleading for his life, he was trying to save many more lives.