This letter is widely regarded as a powerful defense of nonviolent protest. Do you think it deserves this recognition? Support your answer with text evidence and your analysis of King’s use of rhetoric.

I think that the letter deserves the accolades it has. King transcends ideas of race to include humanity. The restraint that Dr. King shows throughout the “Letter” – using as many appeals to logos as he does to pathos; refraining from drawing distinctions between races; justifying his extremism in philosophical terms – is not only an effective tool for convincing his audience. It is also a reflection of his optimistic belief that all men are connected. Early on, he states this explicitly, arguing, “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” (170). His variety of tactics and allusions only validates his belief that all men are connected to one another, and by extension, are responsible for one another. In decrying the pernicious influence that groups have on individuals, he suggests that harmony might come if we accept our place not in limited groups – southerners vs. northerners, black vs. white – but instead in the community of universal humanity and “brotherhood” (185).