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Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Alone, afraid, and unwanted is how Martin Luther King, Jr. explained he felt in “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King Jr. wrote the letter to several clergyman in Alabama. On April 16, 1963, King, Jr. wrote to several clergy men regarding their recent statement of his present activities. The clergymen referred to his recent activities as “unwise and untimely.” He lets the clergymen know why he is in Alabama. He is serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an organization operating in every southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights is one of the eighty five organizations across the South. Birmingham asked King …show more content…

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. (King, para 4). I believe this statement means that anything that happens to one person of the Negro community affects them all. He states, “it is
Long 2 even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.” By that statement King means the white left the Negro’s no choice but to fight for their right in this divided world. King used some very powerful words in this letter to the clergymen. For anyone who wants to have a nonviolent campaign should use the four basic steps. Which are collection of the facts to determine whether injustice exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. King and his team went through all of those steps to prepare for Birmingham. We can’t deny that racial injustice is taking over this community. According to King, Birmingham is probably the most segregated city in the United States. Kings use of the unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches is a great way to make everyone’s eyes open in the United States. Kings choice to use facts is great. Racism is a harsh thing in this world we live in. More people should realize that the Negro community should have just as much right as the white

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In paragraph 2, King writes, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: (1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; (2) Negotiation; (3) Self-purification; and (4) Direct action” in a formal structure to explain the steps he and his followers had taken and establishes that he does not want

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As a devoted man of god, King was a peaceable person, he wanted to end segregation and other acts of racism in a nonviolent way. His plan of action had four steps, injustice, negotiation, self -purification and direct action. For each step he

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Dr. King’s drive to resolve racial injustice is proof that anything is possible. Birmingham was a southern city so naturally Dr. King was turned down when trying to speak with the city officials. That never stopped him; his powerful words gathered more and more people to fight

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

In order to express why he is taking direct action in the fight against racial discrimination, King states: “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King, paragraph 13). The use of the words “oppressor” and “oppressed” create an antithesis which uses two opposite words to create a parallel sentence structure. In this case the “oppressor” can be viewed as the unfairness of the laws discriminating against African Americans and everyone who supports these laws, including the clergymen. The “oppressed” are the African Americans, who constantly have to face injustice. The use of the words “given” and “demanded” also creates an antithesis in which King explains how freedom will not be simply given by those who are taking the freedom away in the first place, but rather, that the ones being stripped of their rights have to demand to have them back.

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Martin Luther King wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail" not only to reply to criticism from clergymen, but to expose the racism in this city and promote his mission. King starts off his letter by writing about how he does not usually reply to all the criticism he receives, but he feels that this topic is too important to let pass by (King 331). King appeals to all aspects of citizens. By mentioning that he is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King ethically appeals to his audience by strengthening his character with experience and leadership skills (King 332). Another way King ethically appeals to his audience is by writing about the many occasions that African Americans have been treated unfairly.

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(King, 1) Dr. King explained that he read the recent statement published by clergymen in a Birmingham newspaper, and how they described Dr. King’s latest actions in the town as ill advised and inopportune. He initially accredited the criticism and claimed that he was just one of the huge amount of black southerners that may cause mayhem in the streets. He is the president of the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), centered in Atlanta, Georgia but managed through the South. He displays the magnitude of the group's expansive range, and then explains

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895 Words | 4 Pages

With the help of these four steps, he justifies the need for the demonstration. King illustrates the city of Birmingham as “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States,” (King 2). Here King is able to show that injustices are present in Birmingham, which further justifies his reason for a peaceful demonstration. King proceeds to speak about his method of protesting. He states that negotiation was not met, and that “[their] hopes had been blasted,” that like “victims of a broken promise,” their wishes had been disregarded, (King 2).

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Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail served various purposes besides responding to the attack on nonviolent tactics by the Alabama clergymen. His letter painted a vivid picture of the grief, desperation, and impatience that filled black hearts. The choices King made when writing the letter allowed the reader to view the civil rights issue from a Negro perspective. Dr. King first filled the reader with the overwhelming desperation blacks had felt for generations, and then he set out to debunk the clergymen’s argument.

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For dozens of years, black people were treated like animals, even decades after they were “freed” from the shackles of slavery. It wasn’t until the mid-1950’s that one man took it into his own hands to make a change, and his name was Martin Luther King, Jr., a name with which virtually the entirety of America is familiar. King did a lot of monumental things, and almost all of his influence lay within his mastery of word manipulation and rhetoric. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of his use of rhetoric happens to be in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, written to a group of white clergymen in 1963 after they criticized his campaign.

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When King describes the acts of violence against his “black brothers and sisters” from law enforcement he is able to appeal to the emotions of many by making people try to sympathize with him and his cause. As King states, “but when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill,” (King 2) he shows how misguided the statement of the clergymen was. He does this by exhibiting real life examples of what he himself has seen occuring as a result of peaceful demonstrations furthering his arguments validity. Not only physical harm from law enforcement is affecting African Americans, but the way the law works is too. With Kings example of the segregation that the law causes he uses the scenario, “as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park… and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children,” (King 2) to show how an innocent child understands the issue of racism.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

King’s use of pathos in his rebuttal gives his audience a chance to foresee his involvement in Birmingham; however, when he states, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he implies that this movement involves more than Birmingham, and that is when King felt it was necessary as a citizen, that stands for equality and freedom, steps in and does the right thing for his neighbors. King also reminded those who criticized his activism, that people in other areas of the world are headed in the right direction, at a rapid pace, while individuals of color in America struggle for the right to enjoy a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. He relates the issue of equality in Birmingham to a “stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace,” compared to the other parts of the world, and this reinforces King’s focus on the rights of those in Birmingham. King uses details of his conditions in a long narrow jail cell to describe the length and quality of the letter he composed while incarcerated.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, argues against criticism from eight Alabama clergymen, and addresses their concerns. He defends his position, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), against accusations of disturbing the peace in Birmingham, as well as explaining his values and opinions. Throughout the letter, King adopts a strong logical and credible tone, and reinforces his position through the use of strong emotional justifications, in order to appeal to the clergymen and defend his public image. Martin Luther King opens up his Letter from Birmingham City Jail by appealing to the clergymen's emotions, and assuring his peaceful response, which he describes in "patient and

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570 Words | 3 Pages

He says they are able to “deplore the demonstrations” (King 255) by Negroes in Birmingham, Alabama, but do not express concern for the unjust “conditions that brought about the demonstrations” (King 255). King

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251 Words | 2 Pages

We live in a world with currently many conflicts from the racial disparity in high incarceration rates to gun violence and the war over gun rights. In his letter, King describes that Black Americans have no identity and that the oppressed cannot remain oppressed forever. King implies that they cannot be told to “wait for justice” because if they simply

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949 Words | 4 Pages

King then brings a dark image based on recent events: “There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any city in this nation.” Where he continued to talk about how these are hard cold facts about how African American’s are treated in this country. King does this to make the reader question if what people are doing the to African Americans are the right thing. After all, why would you bomb someones house just because of their skin color? Not only that, but even after people are harassing their race, they decline any action towards making a peaceful

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