His voiceand moral stature were eloquent weapons in the fight for civil rights and integration in the 1960s. In his letters or speeches, he establishes credibili ty in a number of ways. He provided allusions to outside authorities, reminded the audience of his motives and morals, and he appealed to the goodwill of the audience by making clear that he is answering their criticisms. Virtue is reiterated in his dis course by his constant call on God's forgiveness. He leaves his readers with the firm impression that he is a person of intelligience, virtue and goodwill arguing a just cause and it is in his words, sentences, and allusions that King establishes his character.
Persona is a term related to ethos in literarty theory.
In classical drama, a persona was literally a mask that an actor wore, both to amplify his voice and to provide clues about his character. There has been much debate in the history of rhetorical theory over the ultimate source of ethos. Another argument, developed by Isocrates, Cicero and Quintilian , holds that the speaker's actual history may be used in order to establish credibility. The former traditi on is called the rhetorical view of ethos and the latter tradition is called the philosophical view. A serious concern of rhetoricians and philosophers from ancient times to the present is that rhetoric can be misused by the unscrupulous and the appearance of good character may in fact be only an appearance.