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Martin Luther King's Argumentative Analysis

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At twenty-five years of age, Martin Luther King became a pastor for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, located in Montgomery Alabama (Fuller, 314). His faith in God and Jesus only grew stronger as he witnessed the injustices shown towards African Americans. He often quoted passages from the Bible in his sermons and even in his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. In this letter, he explains that he is a "love extremist" (King, 297). He viewed religion as a method of bringing out the best in people. It is a refuge for the oppressed. Religion, in King's mind, gives people hope (Cone, 126). It allows them to go back into the world knowing that they will be oppressed but will have hope of better times ahead. King believed that without religion, life would be dark. Yet, religion allows people to have purpose and self-worth (Cone, 144). With the knowledge of a hopeful future, …show more content…

He blatantly opposed war and argued that if a dispute should occur, war is not an option for a solution. King believed that war accomplishes nothing, that it is not as useful as many presume it to be (Lucks, 91). As can be seen throughout history, even to this day war does not solve problems, it only creates them. There have been wars in the past that were believed to end all wars, but as history shows, that belief was truly unsubstantiated. King thought that nonviolence is the answer to conflict. He saw nonviolence as a potent weapon (Baldwin & Burrow, 192). This weapon seeks to destroy evil and injustice, not the people who practise them. It involves a social demonstration of love. Furthermore, in relation to his spiritual inclination, King believed that all human life belongs to God (Baldwin & Burrow, 196, 197). Humans have no right to decide who lives and who dies. This implies that no one is permit to kill another human being. This decision is up to God, for he is the judge over

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Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent African-American activist who used nonviolent strategies for the advancement of equality through civil rights, was criticized by an association of white and Jewish religious leaders for his disruptive behavior caused by his mission for better treatment towards people of color. Dr. King wrote Letter From Birmingham Jail to address his peers’ concerns about his human rights endeavor being immoderate and reckless. In paragraphs thirty-one and thirty-two of his epistle addressed to his fellow clergymen, King uses allusions, anaphora, and parallel structure to justify his extremism and convey why extremism is crucial for the success of his pursuit towards human equality.

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It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro’s cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could win victories without losing wars, and so became the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963” (12). I believe that this paragraph is a perfect way to summarize what King discusses in his book. He emphasized the importance of nonviolence and his belief on it.

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“…the ultimate weakness of violence… It doesn’t solve any problems” (Document J) King raised as a Christian believed that violence was the root of all the problems and if they fought with violence nothing would be achieved. He wanted his followers to protest peacefully to the white’s unruly actions for of his faith violence was never the answer. “…we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws” (Document H) Stated by Martin Luther King in Stride toward Freedom, he wanted told the whites that the black community will revolt against the laws.

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King’s protest was known for being Non- Violent. This was still the case, however, Dr. King wanted more direct action. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor”. He noticed that those in power were not open to negotiations for the African Americans. He wanted to create a situation which left the opposers with no choice but to, negotiate solutions.

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In the year 1963 of August, Martin Luther King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a response of a letter published in a local newspaper. This letter, written by the Clergymen of Birmingham at this time, caught his attention while he was confined in jail for parading without a permit. This time allowed him to respond passionately to the injustice in Birmingham. King’s letter addresses specific points presented in the Clergymen’s, and his direct approach separates King’s strong points through his powerful writing. King is able to defend these differing views and actions through rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos, and pathos.

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He does this by using lines such as “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim”. By using this kind of incendiary language and sentence structure he lets the audience envision how horrible it would be to see this happening to you or your own friends. Through the emotions he provokes, King is able to pursue the reader to hear what he has to say about these outrage of acts. King asserts negotiation is the best way to resolve problems, but when it was not an option on the table, he obliges to confront injustices using nonviolent direct action. He emphasized “the purpose of the direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

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With this information, King noted that those Christians were all extremists in their own right and that that extremism is the form of extremists that King associates himself with. He even went as far as noting hat “Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness.” As result, King defends his methods of nonviolent protesting as a method Christians practiced for centuries and in the process accepted the label extremist, but on his own terms. This effectively rebuttals the clergymen’s arguments and distaste of nonviolent protests by calling them out on their hypocrisy for worshipping a deceased man who practiced the same strategies as King, but turning against him in a time where he needed their utmost

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Martin Luther King Jr, in the letter from a Birmingham Jail he addresses himself as a patriot and as a priest. He entitles himself as both, as metaphors that he is enlightening the people of 1963 and to reveal the ignorance they've done under the name of God. King writes as a, a Civil Rights Leader, an American Citizen, Clergyman, a Christian Brother, a United States Negro, and a Judeo-Christian leader. He defines himself as a man of God as well a man of the United States in such way that demonstrates his beliefs as well, as a committed member. He states “Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, 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

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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.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther King’s Fight for Equality During the course of the U.S’ history, race inequality has always been a problem that concerns different people among the society. There have been many attempts to end segregation in southern states, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as one of the most important Civil Rights’ activist. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist Minister and a non-violent activist that was born in Atlanta, GA in 1929. During his lifetime, he aimed to promote desegregation in southern states, and fight for equality over African Americans.

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563 Words | 3 Pages

MLK’s ultimate claim is that the church is to blame for these happenings and “the judgement of God is upon the Church as never before”(276). King stated how even the people who were in the church trying to fight for justice had been looked down upon and some had been kicked out of their own churches. King’s claims were passionately presented. He relentlessly provided evidence to prove his position on the issue of injustice and also showed ample amounts of examples to solve these problems.

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1511 Words | 7 Pages

In the year 1963 Martin Luther King was imprisoned for peacefully marching in a parade as a non-violent campaign against segregation. When Martin Luther King was arrested by police and sent to Birmingham Jail, a letter written by the clergymen that was directed towards him about why his march was wrong. In response to the letter by the clergymen, Martin Luther King wrote his own letter in response to the Clergymen’s to persuade them into believing that their reasons for putting him in jail were wrong by successfully using Parallelism, deductive reasoning, and alliteration. King uses his rhetorical devices to appeal to the ethos, logos, and pathos of the clergymen to further strengthen his claim. Martin Luther King effectively appeals to the emotion of the clergymen with his usage of parallelism, which repeats the structure and adds great emphasis.

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He said that we are not to hate those who hate us. King believed that one day Afro-Americans will get what they are fighting for. That’s why they have to start preparing for being ethical, sane, reasonable. His tolerance and acceptance towards others impressed

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Through King’s teaching we learn his belief that the view and trust you have of God influences human nature. King believed that in order to accomplish a greater good we must have faith in God. God will give them the strength they need once there is trust and faith with him. Martin Luther King Jr.

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By encouraging people to stand by their Christian ideals, King used religious faith to promote the use of nonviolence

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