Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail'

King and the Personal Plea
Read Martin Luther King's "Letter From The Birmingham Jail" from your course pack and answer the following questions:
1. How does King use his personal experience to make his point?
King’s personal experience during his stay in the Birmingham jail letter is based on his daily life experiences. Since Birmingham was one of the most racist places during the fifties and sixties, King found a need to go there and speak up against the racial injustices which were taking place. Although he and others were unjustly incarcerated for standing up for equal rights for all people and against police brutal actions towards black people. King demonstrated an astonishing character of human morals. Through observation and experience

How does King use information outside of his personal experience to support his point? Is his approach effective? Why?

The outside information King uses to support his point outside of his personal experience is “collection of facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiations, self-purification and direct action”. King stated:

Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated cities in the United States. Its record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of the Negros in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been unsolved bombings of Negros homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. These are hard brutal and unbelievable facts. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders refused to engage in good-faith

King equated his actions as well as other leaders to great prophets and teachers of ancient and biblical times. He also said that “injustices anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. King wrote “just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood”. Therefore, King’s approach is effective in gaining the attention of his audience by stating the truth, presenting various facts in his composition. King went on to say that “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. King uttered that the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the public-school system in 1954 which should of given all people the right to fair and appropriate education as a