Letter From Birmingham Jail Thesis

We the Students Essay
Madison Jones

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. Peaceful resistance opens the eyes of many who may be blind to what’s really going on in the world. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King discusses the increasing acts of violence and hatred towards African Americans in the U.S. King’s usage of raw imagery, pathos, and religious language portray the complicated relationship between the battered Negro and the common white man. King uses savage imagery to exemplify the brutality African Americans were subjected to at the time. King writes, “When you see the vast majority of your twenty million negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society”

He mentions the African slave trade to show how slavery is a part of American history that will never be forgotten. Many people today overlook the U.S’s involvement in the African slave trade. King uses peaceful resistance to remind Americans of the U.S’s cruel treatments of African Americans in the past. King wrote this famous letter during a time filled with segregation and hatred towards African Americans. His letter awakens Americans by referencing how blacks have been mistreated by whites for decades. King challenges the idea that blacks are inferior to whites through peaceful protesting. King continues on in the letter to discuss how our free society is filled with people who prefer order over justice: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice” (King). King recognizes that most people would rather not create tension or disruption,and choose to not

Muhammad Ali exemplifies how peaceful resistance allows a person to stand by what they believe in despite the consequences. Ali expresses his sentiments towards the war: “ Why should me and other so-called “negroes” go 10,000 miles away from home, here in America, to drop bombs and bullets on other innocent brown people who’s never bothered us and I will say directly: No, I will not go” (Ali). Many Americans criticized Ali for “draft dodging” during the Vietnam War,but Ali accepted the consequences for his actions. Ali served five years and lost his boxing title for standing for what he believed was right. He preached non-aggression to thousands of Americans as he toured the U.S. speaking against the war. Peaceful resistance can be seen in today’s modern society. On Saturday, January 21 over 1 million men and women marched on Washington D.C. to speak out against the policies of the newly elected President Donald Trump. People from all of the U.S. came together to speak up about the rights of women, African Americans, immigrants, and the LGBT