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Essay On Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing

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1963 Church Bombing

“We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity” (Fred Hampton). The day of the Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was a day where fire was fought with fire. According to the article, “Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing.", a black man was murdered by an officer who believed that the black man was apart of an uprising for civil rights. (“Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing." n.pag.). The 16th Street Church bombing shows the effects of segregation and racism, the lack of boundaries, the significance of churches, what the KKK believes in and the extent of …show more content…

According to “The role of the Black church in the Civil Rights Movement” by Vicki Phipps, the church was important because after slavery, black people could go there and feel safe. “People can only be enslaved for just so long before they find the hope inside to rise up for justice” (Phipps n.pag.). For a while the Civil Rights leaders did not have a place to meet and discuss things. The black community eventually migrated towards the Churches to plan their next move. “...the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, served as an organizing center for rallies and marches for racial desegregation…” (“Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing"). During the civil rights movement, the black community did not have much to depend on. “Oppression, rejection and segregation leave a human being with no one to turn to, but God” (Vicki Phipps n.pag.). With nothing to rely on African Americans use the church as their safe haven and a place of convenience. The church was more than a place to have meetings, it was a place where they could relax and talk to God. The African American church was so important that if anything happened, it would take the civil rights movement to a new

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In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to “A Call for Unity,” a declaration by eight clergymen, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Through powerful, emotionally-loaded diction, syntax, and figurative language, King adopts a disheartened tone later shifts into a determined tone in order to express and reflect on his disappointment with the church’s inaction and his goals for the future. King begins this section by bluntly stating that he is “greatly disappointed” (33) with the church, though he “will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen” (33). By appealing to ethos and informing the audience of his history with the church, he indicates that he is not criticizing the church for his own sake, but for the good of the church.

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The Letter from Birmingham Jail proclaims the truth of black suffering out to the white community readers. In Birmingham, it is well known that racial injustice has taken a widespread over the black general public; they are faced with police brutality and the consequences of unjust treatments. Consequently, there are more unsolved bombings of black homes and churches in Birmingham compared to other cities in the country. Their own church, where their family, neighbors, and friends come to peacefully worship were targeted by a hate group. When the victimized communities seek justice, they are ignored.

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Summary/Assessment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is an organization operating in every Southern state with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He came to Birmingham, Alabama because injustice lies there and helped protest about it in a nonviolent demonstration against racial discrimination. The eight clergymen of the South did not approve of these demonstrations happening which caused Dr. King to be confined in Birmingham Jail cell, writing a letter to them men explaining on why he was in Birmingham and what his reasons were for these protests. He begins to talk about and explain the four basic steps that needed to be followed for any nonviolent campaign. He also gives the audience a better understanding by giving a visual glimpse of what the black community had to endure.

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in April 16, 1963, is a passionate letter that addresses racial segregation and all the injustices to the black American society. He writes this letter as a response to the eight clergymen, but it also became one of the most influential letters in defense of nonviolent movement ever written. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the country and the most violent. Even after segregation was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1954. In Birmingham, white and black Americans were very much separate with “white only” hotels, restaurants, and even bathrooms.

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On September 15, 1963 the group made a dreadful act. They placed a bomb under a staircase to the basement of 16th Street Birmingham Baptist Church. Four Girls, Denise McNair, who was eleven, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, which were all 14, were killed in the bomb that exploded at 10:19 a.m(gale group). Twenty-two other people got injured, but were fortunate enough to survive. Former KKK members that included veterans supposedly committed the crime.

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A "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" (1963), by Martin Luther King Jr. was written in response to a letter published by Alabama clerics. This time he will respond with all his heart to this cynical oppression. In the course of the letter King makes extensive allusions to multiple philosophers, including Aquinas and Socrates. King's work has only one objective: the protection of civil disobedience as a form of protest that the Civil Rights Movement could continue in an unencumbered way despite this singularity of purpose, the complexity of the situation meant that it was "A Call for Unity" published by the eight clergymen. Immoral and immoral mentions drew the attention of the Minister through the letter, and were expressed by different points

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In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he is addressing the Clergymen, more specifically the white church and its leadership who criticized his efforts in the civil rights movement, by calling his demonstrations unwise and untimely. He is also simultaneously addressing the national audience as well in letting them know of the injustices of the time. It was 1963, and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter from inside a jail cell. He had been arrested during an anti-segregation march for not having a valid parading permit in Birmingham, Alabama. In this letter he addresses the criticisms that were brought forth to him.

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Argument Analysis Paper During the nineteen sixties, there were high racial tensions between the whites and minority races, mainly with blacks. This was an issue that occurred almost everywhere in the United States at this time, but Birmingham, Alabama was affected the most. Public places in that town were segregated from transportation services to restaurants to restrooms. There were restaurants that did not allow blacks, public water fountains were separated from blacks and whites, and blacks had to sit in certain sections of buses.

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In the “letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he uses pathos, logos and rhetorical devices such as imagery, sarcasm and biblical allusions to show how his work of nonviolent protests are smart and how Birmingham has violated their civil rights. He expresses himself in his letter by explaining why he can not wait any longer because of the countless murders, the unsolved bombing, lynching, and violence towards the black community. MLK Jr. came across a statement which was a call for unity by eight Clergymen while being in the Birmingham city jail because of him not having a license to protest. In response to the eight Clergymen, Dr. king decided to write a historical letter letting them know that freedom was not an option because of the false promise and the continued violence. The letter is written to inform the people who are against, neutral and with segregation that it is time to take action and prove to the clergymen why he will stand up for what is right.

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The Bombing 16th Street, Baptist Church The tragic event occurred on September 15, 1963. The act was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan, people who disliked blacks and did horrible things because of this, in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama was a Southern state and allowed segregation. The explosion went off at approximately 10:20 A.M., when Sunday school was ending and the service was beginning.

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His biblical reference had a huge role in this letter to enlighten the people. Martin Luther King within 3 paragraph starts expressing his love for the church and how they capture everything he believes in. Then follows on to the next paragraph saying it's perfect but in Birmingham, he had hoped maybe in the church there be a difference. In the 3rd paragraph he finally states ‘I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.’” He blames that is the church fault for not enlighten its community as leaders.

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Essay #2: Argumentative Analysis Martin Luther King Jr. introduced a very controversial argument about why he believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”(264). In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stated that justice is never given by the oppressor and the reason why his protests were very relevant and wise was because the issues needed to be addressed right then and not later. Moving along throughout his entire letter his primary thesis seemed to be that if the people wanted to be free from racial injustice they needed to participate in nonviolent protests. Given his setting and atmosphere, MLK did an extremely impressive job of using kairos and other rhetorical techniques in his piece.

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During the civil rights era, the black church stood as a foundation for the African American community. It was a safe haven for those who felt like they didn’t have a voice outside of the church. The black church used to be a political atmosphere especially for those advocating black rights. It gave blacks the pedestal to vocalize the issues in the community and in the world to the oppressed. This was during a time when African Americans received no respect and were placed at the feet of injustice by the American society.

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