Rhetoric Letter from Birmingham Jail

Which two excerpts from the selection best support the answer to Part A?

• We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. . . . Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. (paragraph 6)

• On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. (paragraph 7)

• Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. (paragraph 12)

• There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over. . . . I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. (paragraph 14)

• Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an

In paragraph 24, King notes that "...they [white moderates] fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress". Identify the rhetorical device present above.

• Simile

• Metaphor

• Juxtaposition

• Irony

To whom is the Letter from Birmingham Jail addressed?

• ministers who criticized King's efforts

• whites who arrested King for no reason

• his coworkers in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• his wife and his lawyer

What counterargument does Dr. King present to the advice to wait?

• Democratically elected officials would not require African Americans to wait.

• Socrates would not have waited under the same circumstances.

• African Americans already have waited for more than 340 years.

• The 1954 Supreme Court decision has made it impossible to wait.

Who was the Negro's "great stumbling block," according to MLK Jr.?

• Birmingham Police Department

• Ku Klux Klan

• White Citizen's Council

• White Moderate

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice...

• ...in some places.

• ...in the south.

• ...everywhere.

• end of sentence.

What does MLK believe about breaking the law?

• Laws should not be broken under any circumstances.

• Only the wealthy are allowed to break the law because they can afford to pay the price.

• If a law is deemed unjust, then it must be broken.

• Laws may be broken if the Bible says so.

Identify the rhetorical appeal Dr. King employs:

"...when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: 'Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?'..."

• ethos

• kairos

• logos

• pathos

"I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state..." is an example of

• ethos

• pathos

• logos

" . . . and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid."

• ethos

• pathos

• logos