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A Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary

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Life is created by a repeated cycle of replicating cells. Although the replication of each cell is the same, the DNA of every single individual is unique; mutations occur frequently and provide variety in our population, there are even times when certain mutations appear silently and have no affect on the cell at all; other times it can completely change a human being altogether. That being said, in theory, every human being is the same, until they are not. The way individuals view one another depends on location and the social standards of said location. For example, a colored person walking down the streets of a caucasian suburb is going to receive judgemental glares because they are different from the majority of the individuals that live …show more content…

When is it that our brains realize that skin color “determines” an individual’s capabilities? When do our brains conceptualize the differences between us? Or does it not happen on its own? Do we need someone to tell us what they think before we make our own connection between the differences or do we do this on our own. In “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King JR. is trying to persuade his fellow clergymen to stand up and fight for their rights and for what is morally correct. Martin Luther King JR.’s six-year-old daughter hadn’t yet figured that everyone was different. He felt distraught when he had to explain to her that she was the different one, he explains his feelings as: “when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to a public amusement park that had just been advertised on television” (King p.430). After processing what her father told her, she says, “Daddy why do white people treat colored people so mean” (King p.430). King’s daughter realizes at that moment that she is different. A six-year-old child realizes that children just like her are discriminating against her because of the color of her skin even though they were genetically created the same

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Dr. King demands that the black man has waited three centuries for justice. He then dispatches into a reiteration of wrongdoing that his kin have endured both 300 years ago and today. Among this abuse is his experience explaining to his young daughter why she cannot go to the local amusement park because of her skin color. Since the black man has been pushed "into the abyss of despair," Dr. King trusts that the clergymen will pardon his and his brethren's desire for change. King discusses the clergymen’s response that SCLC activity is "untimely."

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