Letter That Led To The Ballot Or The Bullet Essay

Amanda Pulskamp English 2089.001 Professor Fetters May 17, 2024 The Letter That Led to The Ballot or The Bullet: A Genre Analysis Essay The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a monumental time in United States history. Without this era filled with the hard work and sacrifice of activists such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., equality would still not exist between Black and White Americans. Prior to this movement, social injustice was still prominent in the lives of Black Americans. Even though Black Americans were granted equal rights and the right to vote through Constitutional Amendments in 1868 and 1870, respectively, this did not stop them from being discriminated against. They were routinely denied access to public

When X says things like, “It’ll be the ballot or the bullet”. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death” (12) and “You talk about a march on Washington in 1963, you haven’t seen anything. There’s some more going down in ’64” (14). His anger is visible because it is a speech. His audience can see and hear exactly how he feels and how they should feel. King takes a much different tone in his letter because he is trying to identify as a peer to the clergymen and show how qualified he is to lead the Freedom Movement. He is polite and confident. By choosing the format of a letter, King is able to be detailed and thorough in the explanation of his background, purpose, and plan. He details his leadership qualifications and says “I am here because I have organizational ties here” (King 1) to show the professionalism of his mission. King uses many biblical references in his letter that his audience would know and relates his work in Birmingham to the work of the prophets by saying “.and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown”