Do you know why Martin Luther King Jr has his own day? One reason he has his own day is because he lead the biggest Civil Rights marrch in America, which is known as The March on Washington. This march had more than two hundred thousand people trying to end segregation. Martin Luther King Jr is one of the most known people in America because, he tried to end segregation and after having many peaceful protest he finally ended segregation.
Martin Luther King Jr made a famous speech that is known as the "I have a Dream" speech. That speech was an inspiration to millions of African-American people. One line in the speech that was very inspirational was “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together in the table of brotherhood”(King263). In this line he is trying to say that segregation will end. When it does it will not matter what color you are we are all equal. This also helps because if the marches are peaceful, people will come together in a nonviolent way.That is why that is an important part of his speech. Also why he tries to convince the white clergymen to march with him.
…show more content…
While in jail, he wrote a letter to white clergymen to tell them why he came to Birmingham.In his letter he says “I can’t sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”(King272).In that line he is trying to tell the clergymen that you can’t just fix a problem in one place and not another.If the people spread through America and join together they will stop segregation.That is why Martin Luther King Jr was put in jail, and why he was trying to convince the clergymen he was doing no
Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at it’s peak in the South. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In response to King’s peaceful protesting, the white community viewed “[his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist,” and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive.
King incorporated civil disobedience in his letter to his fellow clergymen. He stated that he could not stay in Atlanta and do nothing because the laws in Birmingham were unjust. Being that Birmingham was so close to Atlanta, it only affirmed his decision to lead the fight even more. King states, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. “ The King being in jail of him writing this letter is very important which also ties back to civil disobedience.
We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands” (paragraph 43). This shows he’s not being selfish and just doing it for himself, he’s doing it for all his African American brothers and sisters. He talked about all they did and they are still suffering in the cruel world where they get no respect and are treated unfairly so he’s making a change for everyone in his culture. Patrick Henry states “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!
On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. while confined in the Birmingham City Jail wrote a letter to the clergymen whom disapproved of his actions by calling him and other nonconformists “outsiders coming in”. During the civil rights movement the city of Birmingham was known to be one of the most segregated city in the United States. The City of Birmingham was known for its police brutality against blacks. They’re where also many unsolved cases such as bombing of homes and churches occupied by blacks. Kings letter was an opportunity for him to express the purpose behind the nonviolent campaign.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he is addressing the Clergymen, more specifically the white church and its leadership who criticized his efforts in the civil rights movement, by calling his demonstrations unwise and untimely. He is also simultaneously addressing the national audience as well in letting them know of the injustices of the time. It was 1963, and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter from inside a jail cell. He had been arrested during an anti-segregation march for not having a valid parading permit in Birmingham, Alabama. In this letter he addresses the criticisms that were brought forth to him.
Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: Just and Unjust Laws Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a letter to eight white clergymen while he’s sitting in a jail cell, the result of a protest in Birmingham, Alabama that King, a Georgian, traveled to attend. Due to the criticisms of the clergymen, he commences his letter by explaining why he needed to come to Birmingham. King states that he was there for a multitude of reasons, the first being that he had organizational ties to Birmingham, the second being that he was there because there was injustice in Birmingham. He states that as a citizen of America, injustice in Birmingham is not removed from justice anywhere else because everything is interrelated, and that injustice
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. is responding to criticism of the peaceful protests and sit-in’s that were taking place in Birmingham, which led to his being arrested and the reason that he was in jail. He first responds to the accusation of being an “outsider” by setting the stage for his being in Birmingham due to being invited because of his ties to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights organization and due to the fact that he is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Next, Martin Luther King expands on his moral beliefs that there is “injustice” in the way that Birmingham is “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States”.
“Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.” (King). King calms the African Americans who are being oppressed by using the words, “this situation can and will be changed.” and “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.” which gives them hope that there will be a new day when a change will take place.
In his letter to the Alabama clergymen, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he disagrees and oppose their allegations made on Kings way of protest in dealing with the racial problems in Alabama. King, being a minister, makes numerous religious arguments and speaks upon the treatment African-Americans undergo daily. Thoreau and Dr. King,
Although that was enough reason to be in Birmingham King goes on further to say that he is in Birmingham because injustice is here. King says he couldn’t ignore the fact there was injustice in Birmingham regardless if he was an outsider or not. King goes on to say that “injustice anywhere is a danger to justice everywhere” this builds on the theory that “whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Defending his belief on just and unjust laws, King uses a quote of St. Augustine the quote says, “A unjust law is no law at all.” King uses this to answer the criticism on how can you advocate people to obey one law but breaking others.
“Letter from Jail” On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight clergymen while he was incarcerated. Dr. King wrote this letter to address one of the biggest issues in Birmingham, Alabama and other areas within the United States. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discussed the great injustices that were happening during that time towards the black community. Dr. King wanted everyone to have the same equal rights as the white community, he also went into further details about the struggles that African Americans were going through for so many years, which he felt like it could change. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, expressed his beliefs and his actions about the Human Rights Movement.
King uses biblical allusions to appeal to the eight white clergymen and their religious affiliation when he states his duty to carry the “gospel of freedom beyond his home town... Like Paul.” His final point of this section is the clergymen’s failure to recognize the underlying causes of the demonstrations they so harshly condemn, a failure causing further ignorance and confusion on racial
A Letter From Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. is a name that will never be forgotten, and that will go down in the books for all of time. He was foremost a civil rights activist throughout the 1950s and 1960s. during his lifetime, which lasted from January of 1929 to April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and a social activist and was known for his non- violent protests. He believed that all people, no matter the color, have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take a direct action rather than waiting forever for justice to come through and finally be resolved. In the Spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stated in a speech that Birmingham was among one of the most segregated cities in the world.
He was their voice. Throughout the “letter” Dr. King demonstrated pathos by engaging his readers of the struggle of being an African American descent. Dr. King starts off by letting his readers know that he was confined during the time of the letter was written and he was addressing the eight clergymen who called his action of a peaceful protest “untimely and unwise”. (King Jr., p. 645) However, he continues to explain his reason for being in Birmingham by saying that injustice was present and he could not just sit in another state and watch it;” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
King's dream did eventually come true... "where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers." (King) Therefore, it is obvious that Martin Luther King’s speech was extremely touching and inspirational to not just the people witnessing it on that August evening but to anyone who simply read his