King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" is full of Ethos- and much, much more

Martin Luther King Jr. penned his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while in jail for participation in a nonviolent anti-segregation demonstration. The letter was King's response to a statement by 8 Southern, white religious leaders. In the letter, which is quite verbose, King does not hesitate at all to establish his ethos as both a religious and Civil rights leader. He mentions having "the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference," an organization with affiliates including "the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights." Thus, while reading the article you are already aware of King's credentials. In a sense, knowing his leadership history also further emphasizes King's imprisonment as being racially motivated. Why else would an African American man be sitting in jail for participating in a peaceful protest motivated by a desire for social and racial equality? Are freedom of speech and assembly not our Constitutional rights? Had a white man taken King's place, would his actions have landed him in jail?

King continues to maintain this credibility throughout the letter. For example, when responding to the religious leaders' claims of the protest being "extreme," King mentions his disappointment at such a reaction from "fellow clergymen." King's inclusion of himself in this group of religious leaders again establishes ethos.

In a way, I found it almost difficult to distinguish exactly what was exclusively ethos in King's letter. Every sentence seems to be electrified with both knowledge and emotion, with credibility and experience, much like Billie Holiday's song, "Strange Fruit," which describes the horrors of lynching faced by Black Americans. However, perhaps it is just this- his descriptions of the racial injustices faced by Black Americans day to day, "plagued with inner fear and outer resentments," being recounted obviously from experience- that makes his "Letter" so powerful. King speaks as a leader, as a teacher, but he speaks as a human being too, and at that a human being who simply longs for his well-deserved rights.

-Natalia de Gravelles