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'Letter from Birmingham Jail' Rhetorical Analysis In April of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama for his efforts in the civil rights movement. One day after King's arrest, a full-page advertisement taken out by a group of local, white, moderate, clergymen appeared in The Birmingham News (Wexler 163). They attacked the demonstrations as "unwise and untimely" and concluded, "We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures …

…himself to other great men in history in order to validate his use of civil disobedience and being known as an "extremist" by doing this. Finally his use of logos or logic gives King a chance to explain that he was invited to Birmingham and did not just come there to cause trouble, the difference between a "just" and "unjust" law, and the methods used to determine whether direct action was needed in a situation.