Summary Of A Letter From Birmingham Jail

A Letter from Birmingham Jail Summary

In “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963) Martin Luther King Jr. states who he is, why he is in Birmingham, and that action is needed in response to the letter “A Call for Unity” signed by eight clergymen. He felt the need to respond to them because they were “men of good intentions” but don’t understand the brutality in Birmingham or why the Southern Christian Leadership Conference took direct action. King talks about how he would have rather negotiated; but when no action is taken from the negotiation the direct action gets the white moderates attention to negotiate as they call him an “extremist”; which king felt was a little out reached because its apart of our civil rights. Informing the clergymen

talks about the brutality injustices and the action taken in A Letter from Birmingham Jail. According to King, when there is a threat to one minority in one area in the world it affects us all indirectly. I agree with King when he says, “Whatever affects one directly affects us all indirectly” (1) because when something happens somewhere it can show another, somewhere else, that it’s okay. For example, the police brutality outrage around the states or the black lives/all lives mate conflicts happening now; just like the police brutality towards the blacks in Birmingham. I believe we must all take a stand to stop the riots and injustice taking place and look at facts rather than what media posts. It is starting to cause an indirect affect to others around the states for just being a certain race, having a certain job, or just because someone else is doing it

King, Jr. also talks about how there are laws that do justice to all and laws that are unjustified by degrading a minority and their constitutional rights. I agree with King when he restates Augustine’s statement, “an unjust law is no law at all” (3). I say this because when a law takes away your constitutional rights within a group of certain people it’s not a law it someone trying to show their authority over another. What showed this was when African Americans where being arrested for showing nonviolent action of protesting and being brutally beaten and hosed for their civil right to protest. King also got called an extremist for this action taken. He talks about how we use this action to get a negotiation from the other side of the situation. Now of days there are riots, fires, and brutality taking place in or streets. These actions are the ones to arrest someone over. There’s also how the government is trying to take away guns and ban them but they use them in their security system for protection. This would be an unjust law because it singles out someone from