Martin Luther King, the most well known civil rights activist and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 16, 1963. He was arrested for protesting without a license. Martin Luther King wrote a letter while in jail in response to the clergymen, stating that he no longer wanted to sit and wait to be heard. While writing this letter, Martin Luther King uses his claims, rhetorical devices, and conference sources to develop his argument. Martin Luther King states that he is not an outsider. He makes it apparent that he has affiliate ties with many organizations in the south by saying that "I am here because I have organizational ties here" in paragraph 2. His organizational ties indicate a credible source. In addition, Martin Luther King also claims that it is his biblical duty to be in …show more content…
He uses these sources to back up and reinforce his argument of why he cannot sit and wait to be heard. King cites the Supreme Court's decision of 1954, a law that bans the segregation of public schools as a tool to use against the clergymen, stating that "You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern," King brings this up because the laws that King is talking about are unjust, segregation laws that are unfair and only affect the black population. These laws that the clergymen are talking about are nothing like the Supreme Court's decision of 1954, a law that helps the black population. King also quotes St. Augustine in the fact that "an unjust law is not law at all" when asked about how a person can advocate for breaking some laws whilst obeying others. King states that "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." this quote shows that an unjust law doesn't even exist in his eyes, just as St. Augustine