Letter To Martin Luther King Essay

Timing is key in most any endeavor. Whether delivering a speech, launching a company, or even starting a social movement, actions must be timed correctly to make success an option. In a letter to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a group of clergymen from the state of Alabama criticize the renowned civil rights advocate on the timing of his demonstrations in Birmingham, claiming he should wait for the city government to act on its own. In the now famous reply from his jail cell, King develops a logically structured argument, citing common morals and information to directly refute the clergymen’s claim that his actions are untimely, while establishing a need for immediate action. King methodically crafts a well structured and logical

King frequently alludes to notable Christian leaders and philosophers, including Reinhold Niebuhr and his idea that “groups are more immoral than individuals” (12). As a religious theorist, Niebuhr developed the principles of Christian Realism, a philosophy whose tenets include a need for cooperation and compromise, one of King’s own core values, and the idea that collective structures tend to corrupt humanity’s ethical nature. By drawing the support of a widely respected Christian who shares many of King’s own central beliefs in how to achieve change, King establishes credibility with his devoutly religious audience. More than the simple use of a name as a ploy to gain support, King applies Niebuhr’s principles to the question at hand, advocating the immediate continuity of his demonstrations, claiming the massive group that is the white power structure of the South must be prodded to leave their unjust ways behind. King builds further on this idea that action must be taken to prompt a powerful group into accepting justice because “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (13). Here King uses antithesis to turn a widely accepted idea about the nature of humanity into a memorable maxim effectively conveying the central principle of his campaign. He emphasizes the need for