How Did Martin Luther King Believe In Letter From Birmingham Jail

977 Words4 Pages

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Martin Luther King Jr., had an immense amount of faith. Martin was born January 15th, 1929 to Alberta King, who was a teacher to her three children, and Martin Luther King Sr., who was the minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. King was a smart kid growing up and aspired to be a doctor. He skipped the grades of 9 and 12 and eventually graduated from Morehouse College. With Martin's dad being a minister, Martin spent a lot of his childhood in church. While in college, Martin switched career paths and chose to become a minister. He later attended Boston University, where he met his wife, Coretta Scott (Osborn 131). As Martin Luther King Jr. grew older, he became a …show more content…

The letter was in response to another letter written by eight Alabama clergymen. Through their letter, the men were, “objecting to the desegregation campaign, praising the “restraint” of the police, and urging blacks to avoid demonstrations and to press their case through the courts rather than in the streets” (Whitman 501). Martin was infuriated by this and was not going to let these men get away with it. In his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” Martin wrote back criticizing these men and called the whites in the south “the Negro’s greatest stumbling block in his stride toward freedom.” Also saying how the city had been ignoring the problems black face everyday, and are now being forced to face the issues. King wrote his response on April 16th, 1963, and later had it smuggled out of jail. The public viewed this as a nonviolent act of …show more content…

Aside from the 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial his speech was watched and listened to through many TV's and radios. Engelbert says, "On that day, King became the undisputed leader of the civil rights movement in America." Although people were deeply affected by King's words, the society became more violent. The FBI started keeping a closer eye on King after his speech, "King's growing influence was perceived as a possible threat by the [FBI], which viewed King's message of equality as, at best, subversive, and, at worst, communistic (Engelbert). The FBI saw King as a man growing in power, which to them, was a threat, as he could try and pull something more than just gaining civil rights. Another act of violence that occurred a month after Martin's "I Have a Dream" speech was, four girls were killed in a bombing in an African American church, then, three months after that, Kennedy was assassinated, and in the summer of 1964, three civil rights workers were killed by a white supremacist