Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From The Birmingham Jail

Bringing about social change is no easy task, and there are specific components that Dr. Martin Luther King outlines in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” that are necessary to nonviolently protest injustices. He mentions four main steps: the collection of information to demonstrate the injustice, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. After trying to make changes from within the system through the demonstration of information and negotiation, one must complete self-purification. This step includes preparing and steeling oneself for suffering that will come during direct action, which is a physical demonstration and frequently involves breaking a law. Suffering is often inevitable and necessary while attempting to achieve

King’s outline of nonviolent social change. After a person has attempted to negotiate and reason with the system, they have to prepare for direct action. This preparation is self-purification. The group must repeatedly ask themselves if they will be able to endure the suffering ahead while remaining peaceful and not responding with violence. They will know that they will have to break a law and suffer the consequences during direct action without retaliating. A key component of King’s plan is that the civil disobedience remains nonviolent. It is difficult but critical to remain peaceful through the trials that will be faced ahead. Self-purification is the best way to make sure the group will not resort to violence under any circumstances. Any violence would be counterproductive and undermine the cause. If violence were to occur, the people in power would scrutinize that instance over all else and use it against the movement. Self-purification is required to avoid giving the people in power any more reason to disregard or diminish the protestors. Self-purification prevents violent reactions to the necessary suffering the group will undergo in the

It occurs when one has a current belief but then sees something that makes them question what they know, causing inner turmoil. Creative tension is different from violent tension, which often involves bodily harm and results in the people with power withdrawing from the argument. Alternatively, creative tension makes the people with power consider the argument of the protesters. The idea of creative tension is to make the people with power engage emotionally with the cause. This way, it is not so easy for them to brush off the movement. Creative tension is created in the minds of the people in power when they see other people suffering for a specific cause. As previously mentioned, when people see suffering they are moved to alleviate that suffering. Therefore, the people in power must consider making the change to the injustice the people are protesting if that change would alleviate their suffering. This thought process establishes creative tension because the people in power must mentally debate whether they should keep society the same or make a change. Creative tension will lead to people questioning the way things have been in favor of what they now see as right or fair. This could cause the people in power to take action to make the social change and right the injustice. It is through suffering that creative tension can be created in the minds of those in power, and it is through creative tension that