Letter from Birmingham Jail
Why was Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham when he wrote this letter?
He was arrested during a nonviolent protest
What is the central purpose of the Declaration of Sentiments?
To demand equal rights for women in political, social, and legal spheres
Who is the speaker of “Ain’t I a Woman?”?
Sojourner Truth, a formerly enslaved woman and abolitionist
Who is the speaker in “Flag Salute”? (not the author)
A poet exposing hypocrisy and racial violence
Who is the speaker of the poem?
The Mississippi mother, the mother who Emmett Till supposedly whistled at
To whom is the letter primarily addressed?
Eight clergymen from Alabama
Who was the original intended audience for the Declaration of Sentiments?
The women gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention and sympathetic reformers
What was the intended audience of “Ain’t I a Woman?”?
The attendees of the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, including both men and women
The poem is most directly addressing:
Patriotic Americans who accept the Pledge without criticism
What is a ballad?
A song or poem
King distinguishes between two types of laws. What are they?
Just and unjust
Which rhetorical choice most directly mirrors the Declaration of Independence?
The list of grievances
Which rhetorical choice is most notable in Truth’s speech?
The repeated refrain “Ain’t I a Woman?”
Which rhetorical choice most strengthens Popel’s message?
Repeating the Pledge alongside graphic lynching imagery
Which theme is most fitting for the poem?
Racial violence affects more than just its primary victim
When King lists examples of Black children being humiliated, what appeal is he using?
Pathos
Which rhetorical appeal is strongest in the text when the authors declare, “all men and women are created equal”?
Pathos – emotional appeal to fairness and justice
Which logical appeal does Truth use when she says, “I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me”?
Logos – showing through evidence that women are as capable as men
Why does Popel describe the rope being cut into souvenirs?
To show how communities treated lynching as entertainment
What irony does the mother realize through the course of the poem?
The dark villain was not a villain
King’s repeated phrase “We can never forget…” is an example of:
Anaphora
Why did the authors deliberately adopt the style and structure of the Declaration of Independence?
To align the women’s rights struggle with America’s founding ideals of liberty
How would you best describe the tone of “Ain’t I a Woman?”?
Passionate and defiant
How does the poem contrast the ideals of the Pledge with reality?
It pairs promises of liberty and justice with acts of racial terror
Which literary device does the following BEST exemplify?
"That a red ooze was seeping, spreading darkly, thickly, slowly,
Over her white shoulders, her own shoulders,
And over all of Earth and Mars."
Hyperbole