1. Identifying Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”

2. TNReady Standards Addressed
Informational Texts Strand, Craft & Structure
Standard # 5: Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
Information Texts Strand, Craft & Structure
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

3. The Birmingham Campaign began April 3, 1963
The nonviolent campaign included sit-ins and a parade.

4. Judge W. A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against demonstrating.
The coalition refused to obey and the sit-ins continued.
King was
roughly
arrested on
April 12

5. A friend smuggled in a copy of the newspaper which held the infamous “Call for Unity,” issued by eight
white clergymen.
“Letter from
Birmingham Jail” is a
response to that
proclamation.

6. King was trained in classical rhetoric.
He makes textbook perfect appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.

7. Using the tables of various ways to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos, in your textbook let’s see if you can identify King’s use of these appeals in the “Letter.”