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Civic Engagement Without Violence Analysis

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My motif for the title, Civic Engagement without Violence, is due to the argument that Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. propose. Civic engagement can be understood as a way that citizens of a community can unite and participate to improve the conditions of the community. In a type of activism, both Gandhi and King wanted to speak out against authority in a non-violent manner and discuss countless reasons towards why their followers felt offended and mistreated. By Gandhi and King being born in an era of hateful animosity and chaos, their philosophy became powered by real life scenarios occurring regularly. Thus, their non-violent rhetoric and their leadership dexterity became beneficial in the fight for truth and equality.

Mahatma …show more content…

had an abundance of time to write a letter to the clergymen that reside in Birmingham City. His ambition in writing a letter was to familiarize his fellow clergymen and authority that a non-violent campaign was approximately rising in popularity and there would be no definite way in stopping its formation. As a result of unfair treatment and not being viewed as an individual, the time for compromise is over. “It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city 's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.” (King, 1963, p1). The rationality in why King admitted that the time for compromise was over was by virtue of constant waiting. White people of power forced Negroes to endure because for white people of authority the right time for compromise was not yet there. To the Negro community the term “wait” became a symbol of denied freedom because every single day Negroes had to grasp the perception of being worthless and the hope of such equality kept fading. He also gave a fair warning to the clergymen and authority, by advising them to allow the Negro men, women and kids to march and allow them to congregate in order for their frustration and discontent could be released or else such feelings will ignite violence and

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The writer’s meticulous use of selection of detail, diction and deductive reasoning allows the reader to further understand the events that occurred along with the effects it had on the community as a whole. Those who disagreed with his actions were disproved through these rhetorical devices, allowing them to comprehend his reasoning for his behavior in Birmingham. Overall Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham jail is

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