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By reading both “Alabama Clergymen’s Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr” and “Letter from Birmingham City Jail- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr” the reader becomes aware of how passionate and rightfully life changing Martin Luther King Jr’s movements were. The first letter, sent to King by an Alabama clergymen, is an perfect representation of the painfully common defiance white leaders had towards the oppressed blacks. The clergymen also drops the classic “wait”, saying that if King stops his demonstrations, “equality” and “peace” will eventually ease into the white leaders minds. The second letter is written by King to the clergymen, addressing in the most calm way possible just how wrong he is, and how these demonstrations need to cause tension.
In Paragraph 40 of "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Dr. King expresses great disappointment in the contemporary church because the churches tended to lean towards the status quo. They hid behind various excuses and commended authority for treating nonviolent demonstrators harshly. He is, however, able to find hope in the spirits of individuals. Dr. King expresses disappointment in the inactivity of the church. Rather than act, churches often preached that segregation versus desegregation was a matter of the state.
In this letter to Birmingham, King explains the disadvantages of the inequality and the injustice of the systematic phases of justice. This passage shows how King and others interact in non-violent settings, protesting and in marching for civil rights. A key part of King’s vision, aside from a quest for racial equality, was the idea of non-violence. He also explains direct action and the segregation of colored people. Dr. King is informing the clergy men on how they are ignoring the way the Caucasian officers are mistreating the African Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. attempts to persuade clergymen to follow in his civil rights movement through exhibiting his knowledge over just and unjust laws, displaying peaceful behavior, and empathetic diction. King was very knowledgeable about laws and his right as a human. King stated laws in his letter to the clergymen, which displayed his credibility. He did not only state laws, he also stated just and unjust laws. King stated, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?”
In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. is responding to accusations made by eight Alabama clergymen. He asserts that his actions, and the actions of his followers were just and reasonable. He notes that the clergymen claimed he was acting too hastily but King explains that their actions were not hasty. He backs up his actions with persuasive argument and reasoning. He points out ways that others actions have been unjust and immoral.
The purpose of Martin Luther King's letter is to justify the reasoning for why the people of Birmingham (including him) were protesting. When the local clergymen (who were most likely white men) said that Martin Luther King was an outside agitator, it could paint a picture that the people protesting were "unruly" or destructive. So this letter clears up the misunderstanding that the people of Birmingham are unreasonable and destructive to those who would quickly feed onto the negative narrative that black people already have. Martin Luther King highlights the fact that Birmingham has been one of the most segregated cities in the United States and the black homes and churches of Birmingham being a target of bombing. He believed that this was
History has only proven that the insufficiency of equality as individuals brings hostility between people. For example, the discrimination that people of color had suffered due to the rules and restrictions that were imposed to them. Even though, they were American born citizens, the government was not treating them as equal. Therefore, they started to fight for their rights; most of their manifests were non-violent but due to the discernment from the opposite side some of those protests ended up in riots. Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. even describes their frustrations on a letter that he wrote to his oppose white fellow.
On April 16th 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to his fellow clergymen from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. M.L.K. was invited by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to stage a nonviolent direct action program to protest against segregation, and the injustice being in Alabama. Though criticized heavily, he felt compelled to write a letter from the Birmingham city jail when he heard that a statement was put out by men that he believed to be genuinely good willed. His letter was addressed to his fellow clergymen who complained that his peaceful protest agitated the community, they also stated that the nonviolent protest was “unwise and untimely”. Martin Luther King’s letter was in direct response to the clergymen's statement.
Martin Luther King was a firm advocate of peaceful protests and actions to attain social change; however, these actions failed to bring equality. On April 10th, 1963 the city of Birmingham banned street marches without permission. When King refused to call off his demonstrations he was arrested on April 12, and placed in solitary confinement in the Birmingham Jail. While in jail King read the newspaper ad “A Call for Unity”, calling King’s activities “unwise and untimely”; this ad was a public statement signed by eight Alabama clergymen in protest to King’s actions. In response to this, King writes “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, arguing the points the eight men made in their statements and defending his actions.
Martin Luther King Jr. writes a letter to a few of his fellow clergymen that he left with the title "Letter from Birmingham Jail." While in jail at Birmingham, King had wrote this letter. In this letter he wrote, King decides to address a few people who questioned his intentions as "unwise and untimely." He also decides to discuss his intentions and why he believes they are not "unwise and untimely." In order to have a better understanding of King's intentions, let us look at his concept of justice and his disappointment in the country he lives in, his disapointment in the church system, and the disappointment in the people of america.
A Letter From Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. is a name that will never be forgotten, and that will go down in the books for all of time. He was foremost a civil rights activist throughout the 1950s and 1960s. during his lifetime, which lasted from January of 1929 to April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and a social activist and was known for his non- violent protests. He believed that all people, no matter the color, have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take a direct action rather than waiting forever for justice to come through and finally be resolved. In the Spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stated in a speech that Birmingham was among one of the most segregated cities in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us of our true fight as Americans but most importantly our true fight as Christians. The letter he wrote to fellow church leaders from a jail in Birmingham in 1963 is a true representation of a Christian movement and a powerful example of moral reformation in our nation. Dr. King had values that we should rely on to shape ourselves as believers and guide us as citizens of the free world. What values are so important that I would give my life for? Reviewing this letter, I look at his values that he gladly risked death and ultimately suffered it for to answer this question.
Why We Can't Wait communicates the confidence, poise, and preparedness that Martin Luther King, Jr. felt leading up to his fight against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. By including Letters from Birmingham Jail, one of Dr. King’s most famous declarations about racial inequality, he uses pathos to connect on an emotional level with his readers. Furthermore, Dr. King discusses the importance of involving youth in working for social change. By incorporating the importance of the youth, it helps readers to see the racial and social injustice from 1963, and the injustices today, that they can easily fight for.
Houston Community College Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. Suman Kathayat Professor Rodolfo Villareal History 1302 15th June 2018 While incarcerated in a cramped cell at Birmingham City in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. drafted the letter titled a Letter from Birmingham Jail.
In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “A Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” he provides answers to fundamental metaphysical questions regarding the nature of the human soul. Though his letter is addressed to a group of eight clergymen criticizing his direct action campaign in Birmingham, his ultimate aim is the uplifting of human personhood. Underlying King’s letter is a philosophical, hylemorphic anthropology which puts an anchor deep into a certain conception of personhood, and binds all people who are to read it. He looks deeply at the nature of human beings, as rational creatures who are made to love and be loved, and from thence, deliberates that there is a universal Gospel of Freedom and Justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts that there are universal principles justifying what actions are morally right and wrong, just and unjust.
