Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis

“Unjust laws exist: Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them” (Thoreau 945, par.16). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had written about resisting an unjust government in his piece, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau also discusses the right and responsibility to resist an unjust government. Since King and Thoreau both use current events in their time as examples of injustice, use historical and biblical references, how they can’t wait any longer to make a change, both provide strong arguments on how important it is to stand up against the injustice put upon American people by the government; however, King and Thoreau were inspired to write by different causes

Both writers use current examples as tools to show the audience how the issue of injustice applies to people at the time the piece was written. King discusses the “grossly unjust treatment” (King 262, par.6) of Negroes in the courts and by the white moderate. Using Birmingham as an example, King point out all the things the white moderate tries to ignore, like the fact that there are many “unsolved bombings of Negro homes” (262, par.6). Then King continues to argue how the unjust laws are set upon the Negro community. King explains that the laws we so strictly obey are just laws, the ones that are often broken without punishment are unjust; plus, any law promoting segregation is unjust even though they are still enforced. Arguing how these laws are unjust, King describes that “segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages personality” (265, par.16). Therefore, segregation is also “morally wrong and sinful” (265, par.16) along with being politically wrong. Thoreau also states that the presence of an unjust government exists. Speaking of the Mexican war, Thoreau speaks as though he thinks the government has taken on a role that “[serves] the state chiefly with their heads” and “rarely make any moral distinctions” (Thoreau 942, par.5) and that the government was not taking morals into consideration when deciding to go to war.

King references many prominent figures in history and religion. Discussing how he was put in jail because he disobeyed an unjust law, King references three men who refused to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, and “Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions” instead of following the unjust laws of the Roman Empire (King 266, par.21). Then, King reminds the audience that not all laws ever made were just laws. “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal” though it was wrong and those who sheltered Jews were doing the right thing, as we know now, even though it was illegal then. After being called an extremist for racial equality, King references people like Jesus, an extremist for love; Amos an extremist for justice and then Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson who were extremists for equality for all people. These references in King's writing strengthen his argument by relating it to the historical and biblical people and events that people would most likely think are good and support. Thoreau also references biblical figures. He discusses how Christ explains to the Herodians that each coin has Caesar's face on it and how if they “gladly enjoy Caesar's government” (Thoreau 948, par.27) they should willingly give some of the coins back to him. It almost seems as though he is implying that if you disagree with the government, don’t pay them for their wrong doing.