Essay On Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr

During the Civil Rights movement, civil rights activists used many nonviolent methods to protest the existence of inequality. One method, as paradoxical as it may be considering King’s apparent aversion of hate and strain, was the creation of tension. In Martin Luther King Junior’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he wrote about his views on constructive tension and its role in forcing confrontation. Based on the given unjust situations, combined with the peaceful, nonviolent nature of the tension, King’s method is clearly agreeable. When King wrote his epistle, he had a very specific form of tension in mind. As he deplored violence, King preferred positive pressure that helped to peacefully resolve situations. He claims that ”there is a type

Based on King’s claims, tension is justified in circumstances where oppression, prejudice, and inequality are present. These are situations where King would deem it necessary that “a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”(King, 10) These situations are, essentially, those that have previously been ignored, but that can, and should, not be disregarded any longer. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King asserts that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”(King, 13) This assertion demonstrates the necessity of strain when people are not going to change on their own. Two such circumstances were the ordeal with Rosa Parks and the bus boycotts and King’s “March on Washington.” Both situations utilized King’s idea of tension and produced, or helped produce, results. These events display the obvious soundness of tension as a solution in unjust

Take, for example, Charlayne Hunter Gault, the first woman of color to enroll at the university of Georgia. According to several first hand accounts from that time, her enrollment was not easily accepted. Not only did she have to fight to get in, but that same battle only ended after it was pushed by several court cases and, consequently, the Brown vs. Board of education ruling. The resulting legislation emphasized her right to equal, nonsegregated academic opportunities, and led to her career as a successful journalist. In one of her pieces, “In My Place,” Gault writes, “with the support of our family and friends, we won the right that should have been ours all along.”(11-13) This pressure won her, and countless other integrationists, their inherent rights to equality and, eventually, acceptance. Another instance that showcases the impact of freeing the oppressed can be found in the metaphors of the free and caged birds as described by Maya Angelou. Her portrayal of the caged bird against that of the free bird shows a stark contrast that can be eliminated once he is freed. She describes his present state, writing, “The free bird leaps/ on the back of the wind/ and floats downstream/ till the current ends/and dips his wings/ in the orange sun rays/ and dares to claim the sky.// But a bird that stalks/ down his narrow cage/ can seldom see through/ his