Essay On Letter To The Birmingham Jail And Martin Luther King

History is often written by those in power, but when it comes to the pursuit of freedom, there are many exceptions. The story of freedom is written not by those in power, but rather by those who oppose it, and Hannah Arendt and Martin Luther King are two examples of people with the bravery to speak out. The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and “A Letter to the Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Junior pursue freedom by utilizing well-known examples to engage their audience and advocate against the injustice caused by those with power. Hannah Arendt advocated political freedom relating to totalitarianism and dictatorship. After the Holocaust and World War 2, Hannah Arendt advocated against totalitarian oppression by publishing

King chooses to present racial inequity to his audience from a familiar perspective: “. When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’” (King 479). By presenting this injustice through a father's perspective in sharing disappointing news, he allows his audience to relate their experiences sharing difficult news and create a closer understanding of the injustice their leadership was

These biblical examples of Jesus acting in social disobedience allowed Martin Luther King to demonstrate that by prioritizing justice through civil rights, he is prioritizing God and pursuing Jesus. Therefore, Martin Luther King's decision to compare his actions towards civil rights to Jesus’s actions in faith allows him to demonstrate the hypocrisy of these pastor's criticisms. Martin Luther King shares familiar and biblical examples in A Letter From the Birmingham Jail to effectively convince his audience of clergy members that their criticism contradicts Jesus’s teachings on love and justice. Although there is still room for progress, the comfortable freedom that is accessible in 2024 would not have come to be if it were not for those with the courage to advocate for it against authority. Martin Luther King Junior wrote “A Letter From the Birmingham Jail” in response to eight white and influential priests, while he was in a jail cell (Letter From Birmingham Jail). Hannah Arendt encouraged political freedom when she wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism in Europe during the end of Stalin’s Communist reign in the Soviet Union (About Hannah Arendt at Bard College), but referenced the Nazi’s regime, which was better known by her