In Dr. King’s letter, he is responding to the outside world by calling him and the individuals involved, unwise. Dr. King argues that for justice, they had no other choice but to do this. The three themes I noticed in this letter was; injustice, religion, and nonviolent actions. As we all know, Dr. King was all about nonviolent acts of protesting. In his letter, he writes, “Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary” (King). He explains that without any type of protest, humans would not grow since protesting causes tension. He explained that those who are patient will not be remembered. They had to take action about this situation right now. …show more content…
In Dr. King’s third paragraph Dr. King is referring to the Apostle Paul, who carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to Greco-Roman. He stressed that he was doing the same, carrying the knowledge to African Americans and others that the rights of African Americans were essential to their identity. Dr. King then stressed his love with Matthew 5:44; “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” The word to describe King was extremist, he held onto that word proudly. As he documented in his letter, Jesus, prophet Amos, Apostle Paul, reformer Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson were extremists too. Dr. King argues that since whites cannot distinguish between types of extremist, can they understand the struggle and sufferance of African Americans? Dr. King was an extremist, but he questioned, “What kind of extremist we will be”? Instead of throwing backlash to the clergymen, he explained to the outside world that love would conquer