In this excerpt from the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King uses pathos to persuade his readers. Through storytelling, he evokes sympathy in the reader for the black community. This is especially true when he shares instances regarding children. He plays on their innocence and naiveness to make the reader feel pity for them; they did not do anything to deserve unfair treatment. King also uses words and phrases such as “stinging darts of segregation”, “ominous clouds of inferiority”, “vicious mobs lynch your mothers and father at will”, and “smothering in an airtight cage of poverty” that have strong connotations and elicit emotion. Because he makes the reader emotional, he makes them rethink their actions and attempts to inspire them to change their ways.