During a time of violence, segregation, and racism, few people had the courage to speak out against it. Few people had the bravery to go against what the masses believed, and fewer had the authority to do so. One of these few people was Martin Luther King Jr. and one of the ways in which he spoke out was through a letter written while imprisoned. King was imprisoned by Bull Connor, a police chief in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960’s for not having a license to parade or protest. While in jail, King received a letter written by eight Alabama clergymen who pleaded for African Americans to stop protesting and wait for segregation to happen on its own.
Summary/Assessment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is an organization operating in every Southern state with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He came to Birmingham, Alabama because injustice lies there and helped protest about it in a nonviolent demonstration against racial discrimination. The eight clergymen of the South did not approve of these demonstrations happening which caused Dr. King to be confined in Birmingham Jail cell, writing a letter to them men explaining on why he was in Birmingham and what his reasons were for these protests. He begins to talk about and explain the four basic steps that needed to be followed for any nonviolent campaign. He also gives the audience a better understanding by giving a visual glimpse of what the black community had to endure.
In his letter to the clergymen, he claimed, “In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence.” (Paragraph 8). The law enforcement was completely aware that their actions were 100% peaceful, but yet he was still put into jail. During the civil rights movement, King did not participate in any violent behavior, despite being jailed for “violent behavior”. Even at the end of the letter, King wrote, “Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.” (Paragraph 10).
On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. while confined in the Birmingham City Jail wrote a letter to the clergymen whom disapproved of his actions by calling him and other nonconformists “outsiders coming in”. During the civil rights movement the city of Birmingham was known to be one of the most segregated city in the United States. The City of Birmingham was known for its police brutality against blacks. They’re where also many unsolved cases such as bombing of homes and churches occupied by blacks. Kings letter was an opportunity for him to express the purpose behind the nonviolent campaign.
The people of this movement used peaceful protest to accomplish their goals of gaining an equal spot at the table and no longer being discriminated against. Lead by Martin Luther King Jr., a pastor, they paved the way for African American citizens of today. On April 16th, 1963 King was in the Birmingham jail after being arrested for his protests for change. An announcement had just been published by eight southern religious leaders warning people of the dangers of the protests and calling King out on his actions of protest. Dr.King wrote a letter be in response, from a jail cell.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of the demonstration was to bring awareness and end to racial disparity in Birmingham. Later that night, King and his followers were detained by city authorities. While in custody, King wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter voiced out his disappointment in the criticisms, and oppositions that the general public and clergy peers obtained.
Martin Luther King was arrested for loitering. He was then sent to Birmingham Jail. On April 16, 1963, Dr. King wrote a letter to the Church, titled “ The Letter from Birmingham Jail”. This wasn't your typical letter, the letter was to explain himself and why colored people felt so upset about how they were being treated. ¨ The City's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.¨ Dr. King wrote in his letter.
One more well-known peaceful protest in the era was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, led by Martin Luther King Jr., to help advance African American rights in the U.S. This protest started after Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks was peacefully protesting, as she was given the right to do from the Bill of Rights. This protest is just one of many examples that shows that civil disobedience is beneficial to society, because African Americans eventually got equal rights after more peaceful protests such as sit-ins at diners. Martin Luther King Jr. remains a famous historical figure because of his success with nonviolent protests.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter from his jail cell in Birmingham after he was imprisoned during a march for civil rights. This letter was in response to one written by church leaders in Birmingham condemning the actions of Martin Luther King Jr. and his compatriots. They felt the march was “unwise and untimely” and expressed a belief that the problems he was protesting were better fought through the court system. Overall, Dr. King spoke about the necessity and process of non- violent direct action, just and unjust laws, and of his disappointment in the actions of the white moderate. He argued with the words and logic of a well-educated gentlemen to counteract the church’s argument which appealed to white moderates.
King believed that if he could just go to Birmingham, and protest non-violently, that he could make a difference. On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned, in Birmingham, for protesting the civil rights of Black Americans. While in jail, he began writing a letter addressing the clergymen. His main audience in writing this letter was to the eight clergymen who criticized his actions and also the majority of the population as well. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, argues that injustice
In Martin Luther King’s, Letter from the Birmingham Jail, King attempts to shed a different “light” on the assumptions of his “fellow clergymen” that he addresses in the letter from jail. King focuses on the key assumptions in the letter of the clergymen, addressing their point of view, and then stating his own relevant reasoning and examples and supporting it. On April 12, 1963, King as well as various groups of nonviolent protesters were arrested in Birmingham because they were protesting racism and racial segregation. They were arrested under a newly created law for demonstrating (Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle).
Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at it’s peak in the South. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In response to King’s peaceful protesting, the white community viewed “[his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist,” and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive.
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail because of a peaceful protest, protesting treatments of blacks in Birmingham. Before the protest a court ordered that protests couldn’t be held in Birmingham. While being held in Birmingham, King wrote what came to be known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Not even King himself could predict how much of an impact this letter would have on the Civil Rights Movement. In the letter kind defended Kings beliefs on Nonviolent Protests, King also counters the accusations of him breaking laws by categorizing segregation laws into just and unjust laws. King uses this principle to help persuade others to join him in his acts of civil disobedience.
Many people believe in the word “Activism,” but they have never truly experienced what it means to be an “Activist”. During the Spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was embroiled in the civil rights struggle when he penned his now famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To completely understand Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, you have to understand why it was written. It was, while King was in jail for 11 days in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights struggles of 1963, written in response to a local newspaper article written by 8 local white clergymen. In that article they questioned why he was there (he was loosely referred to as an outsider) and the timing of the peaceful protests.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent man, who aided the fight for civil rights. Due to the unjust treatment of African-American, the Civil Rights Movement was formed to create a new outcome for the future. During the battle, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became imprisoned in Birmingham city jail due to his participation in a nonviolent demonstration against segregation. While imprisoned, he wrote a letter on August 1963, called the "Letter from Birmingham Jail;" he expressed his concerns as to why there has been no advancement for the civil rights movement. While dissecting and analyzing his letter, his moral theory from this letter describes him to be a virtue ethicist.
