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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter To Birmingham City Jail

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Some people have claimed that Martin Luther King, Jr. is a 20th century Socrates. Indeed, King compares himself to Socrates at several points in his Letter from the Birmingham City Jail. In this paper I will argue that King is in fact a 20th century Socrates. By a 20th century Socrates, I mean someone who, like Socrates, is committed to practicing their philosophy, pursues just actions, and fights against moral complacency. I will show that King does meet this definition. Some people may argue that King is not a 20th century Socrates because he had a different stance on civil disobedience. However, King was in completely different circumstances from Socrates and because of that Socrates’s ideas on civil disobedience do not apply. Socrates …show more content…

King was committed to using nonviolent resistance as a means of achieving civil rights for African Americans. He believed that love and nonviolence were more powerful weapons against oppression than violence and hatred. King mentions multiple times throughout the letter about his commitment to the non-violent protest philosophy. King faced opposition, violence, and even death as he fought for civil rights. Despite this, he never wavered in his commitment to his beliefs and continued to speak out against injustice and oppression. King talks about how he was wrongfully imprisoned on charges of parading without a permit (294). King was fully aware of the risks he was taking in peacefully protesting and shows his commitment to his ideas by his willingness to go to jail. Socrates and King both were willing to take risks and punishment for actions that were completely …show more content…

He believed in nonviolent resistance and was a strong advocate for justice and equality. Through his speeches and peaceful protests, he inspired a nation to stand up against racial injustice and to work towards a future where all people are treated equally. King says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”( 290) Like Socrates, King pursued what he thought to be just actions. Despite facing opposition and imprisonment, King never wavered in his pursuit of justice and his legacy continues to inspire future generations to work towards a more just and equal

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In the essay named “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Junior, He uses many great approaches to many different problems faced in his time. The fact that he wants to use a nonviolent approach to solve these problems is not only an admirable thing to do but also the right thing to do. Instead of using violent means to make his points, he instead uses things such as sit-ins, marches, boycotts, and many other ways to peacefully make his point. This in turn breaks the cycle of hatred between the races at that time. If he had used other means, then the problem would have only escalated and gotten worse.

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King stating their wrong doings, helped prove his point about just and unjust laws and about his wrongful jailing for taking a peaceful stand.

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King's life and philosophy continue to have a lasting impact on American society. His unwavering commitment to nonviolence, his advocacy for civil rights legislation, and his belief in the power of peaceful protest have inspired generations of activists and leaders. His vision for a just and equitable society, as articulated in his speeches and writings, remains a guiding light for those fighting for social justice. Furthermore, Dr. King's contributions to the civil rights movement paved the way for significant legal and societal changes.

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Martin Luther King Jr references Paul when he states “So I am Compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to Macedonian call for aid”(444). In addition to establishing that he is a religious man he also show that he is a literate, knowledgeable and wise man when he quotes Socrates, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson who were all seen as radical leaders of their time periods but are now heroic leaders of change. One of the main focuses of his argument is Justice and direct action which is an idea that King supports throughout his argument by showing that he has immense knowledge of court cases and historical situations which agains adds to his

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Martin Luther King Jr. maybe one of the most notable Americans to ever live. He stood up against the racial injustices of his time to become the greatest and most influential civil rights activist. In his “A Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, King writes to the clergymen of Alabama explaining his stance against segregation and the importance of civil disobedience to fulfill a more just society. In his letter, King expresses many philosophical ideas to support his stance on equality.

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As most of these obstacles were unjust he knew he had to fight back. “King, like Thoreau, was willing to suffer for his views, especially when he found himself with punitive laws denying civil rights to all citizens. (King211)” Now, in the year 2016, King is an icon. To the public he is a hero, a man who stood up for what he believed

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Their radical thoughts were necessary even though they were perceived to be extreme and radical figures. Though Socrates and Martin Luther King Jr. lived in different times, their theme of justice is similar. They believed that equality and inclusion had to be incorporated with justice for their society's fundamental and cohesive development. To them, obedience did not have agency and progress required ideas of principle. Socrates and King offered a plethora of principles in their defense against their accusers and the wrongs of their societies.

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Doing the right thing sometimes doesn’t lead to happy endings or an impact on the people. King was protesting in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama for black rights, anti-segregation

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On one hand, Socrates sees the majority and its opinion as irrelevant to justice, asking, “Why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many?”. In fact, he not only argues that the beliefs of the many are unimportant, but goes so far as to imply that the moral code of the majority is patently unjust: “Doing evil in return for evil, which is the morality of the many - is that just or not?”, to which Crito replies: “Not just.” King, on the other hand, contends that the question of whether a law is just is in part determined by the majority-minority dynamic: “An unjust law is a code that a . . . majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself . . . By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.”

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In the letter, King outlines his poignant philosophy of civil nonviolence as a means of achieving social justice, while also making powerful arguments to promptly end racism and

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He wanted to attack the system that the white people just happened to be in. King believed that the struggle was not with the white people but it was more between justice and injustice, the forces of light and darkness. “If there is a victory it will not be a victory merely for fifty thousand Negroes, but it will be a victory for justice, a victory for good will, a victory for democracy.” Nonviolent resistance is an internal matter that not only avoids external violence but also external physical violence and internal violence of spirit. King wanted all of the races to come together so the hatred and the violence could be put to

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King adopted a philosophy of nonviolence. However, this did not stop his oppressors from their own vicious desires. “He was arrested over twenty times for protesting. He was the object of several violent attacks, both to his person and his property. He received threatening phone calls, his home was bombed and set afire, and he was even stabbed” (Khadijah).

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The principles King lays out rest in our hylemorphic nature: our innate ability to reason objectively so as to lead our emotions, our ability to ascertain whether the human law squares with the moral and eternal law, and our vocation to be pursuers of divine wisdom. As Martin Luther King, Jr. launches his letter, he deliberately sets a “patient and reasonable” tone, thereby, establishing a firm philosophical

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philosophized that nonviolent protests and civil disobedience would result in civil equality, as similarly stated by History.com. Henceforth, he articulated his arguments peacefully through the use of words. For instance, on the 28th of August in 1963, King gave a speech that pleaded with America to give the real promises of a democracy, as claimed by Kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu. In his speech he famously states the words “I have a dream.” These words influenced the democratic society that people are accustomed to today.

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