As Martin Luther King, Jr argues in Letter From a Birmingham City Jail, “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, that the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all of their scintillating beauty” (p. 576). In his letter he argues that African-Americans should have equal rights to whites. He writes to the clergymen that his protesters are practicing a non-violent protest to gain the rights they are born with. This is done in a four step process. He adds that his followers shouldn't follow all laws, that there is a difference between just and unjust laws. When called an extremist for his protests, he does not take it bad. He realizes that all great leaders are extremists, but what kind of extremist will they be? Martin Luther King, Jr believed there were four steps to creating a non-violent campaign (p. 570). First step is “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive”. This step is …show more content…
He recognized that all great leaders were extremists to a certain extent. But what kind of extremist would they be? An extremist can promote injustice or an extremist can try and tear injustice down. An extremist can either be one of love or one of hate. That is what separates the good extremists from the bad. He continued to talk about how the oppressed cannot stay oppressed forever. How the “american negro” has been oppressed for hundreds of years and how they can smell the freedom. He quoted Abraham Lincoln saying “This nation cannot survive half slave half free”(p.574). In his own thoughts he meant this to represent half African-American, half white, cannot survive in this nation. Segregation cannot survive, only a nation as a