Rhetorical Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Panel Discusion

In light of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this group of first-year Honors scholars from Governors State University undertook close-reading and analysis of one of the most famous documents to emerge from the Civil Rights era, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This panel presents the results of that analysis across a range of sub-topics, including the biblical imagery King uses to establish precedent and lend ethos appeal to his argument; the manner in which King uses “kairos,” or the opportune moment, to make his argument for the urgency of justice; the organizational strategies of the Civil Rights movement and the need for similar organization in the continued struggle for racial equality today; how King’s style and diction create a legendary illustration of the “pathos” appeal; and finally, how across the entirety of the text, through imagery and exhortation, King evokes the full catalog of primary human emotions. Using the lens of rhetoric, this panel illuminates the historical witness we encounter and the contemporary urgency we feel when we read “Letter from Birmingham Jail” today