Name: Juliany Bataz 

Class: English 
Date:March 25,2019 
 
Martin luther king was in birmingham because he wanted to stop 
racism and segregation. King wrote ä letter from birmingham jail to the 
clergyman because they didn't want him there. To advance his purpose 
king built his Ethos and appealed to people's Pathos and logos.   
Dr. Martin Luther King's purpose for writing the “Letter from 
Birmingham Jail” was to stop racism and segregation. He used appeals to 
ethos to building credibility for himself, the speaker. King begins his 
argument with various appeals to ethos. ¨My Dear Fellow Clergymen” (1). 
This is an appeal to ethos because King was also a clergymen. This 
advances his purpose of trying to stop racism. The second reason he 
offers is his audience’s words¨Unwise and Untimely¨ (1). .This appeals to 
ethos because it shows that your talking about the same thing. This 
advances his purpose because people are more likely to listen to you if 
your talking about the same thing. The third reason he offers is ¨I have the 
honor of serving as president of the southern christian leadership 
conference an organization operating in every southern state.¨(1) This is 
an appeal to ethos because it talks about honoring each other. This 
advances his purpose. 
Second his purpose for writing the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was 
to try to stop racism and segregation in Birmingham. He used appeals to 
pathos because pathos means emotion. King continues his argument with 
various appeals to pathos. “Daddy why are white people so mean?”. This 
appeals to pathos because it makes the reader feel sad and mad because 
the kid is asking why are the white people so mean so that makes the dad 
feel so angry and sad. This advances his purpose by showing that racism 
could affect kids too because when they see white and black people 
seperate that could also affect kids., and this makes them want to end 
segregation. A second example he offers is “Supreme Court's decision of 
1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools.” This is an appeal to 
pathos because this makes the reader feel really disappointed because 
kids should not be in a situation to deal with any racism or segregation. 
This advances his purpose by showing that kids shouldn't be in a problem 
that deals with any segregation. The third example he offers is “As you 
seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can't go to the 
public amusement park that has just been advertised on television” . This 
is an appeal to pathos because it make the reader feels so mad and sad 
because his own daughter can't go to a amusement park just because of 
segregation. 
Third his purpose for writing the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was to 
stop segregation and racism. He used appeals to logos to its used to 
persuade and audience by logical thought fact and rationality.”Nonviolent 
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative 
tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is 
forced to confront the issue.” 
In conclusion King advance his purpose to end segregation. He did 
this by writing a letter to the clergyman to stop everything that was going 
on. This is important because it shows that he actually cared about his 
people and to stop racism and segregation.