Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

Segregation is a problem the United States has struggled with since the founding of the nation, and has been dragged until modern day history. After the abolishment of slavery, the African American community continued to suffer from racism and discrimination due to their skin color. The Civil Rights movement was ignited by this massive segregation between the African American population and the white population in the United States that was suffered during this time. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Leader of the Civil Rights Movement, became unfairly imprisoned during a protest at Birmingham, Alabama. During his stay at the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to write the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” directed

King touches the reader’s emotions and feelings towards the issue and goes into a more personal aspect of this problem, by sharing examples not only as an African American but as a father. In his letter King explains the hardship the regular African American has to go carry everyday due to the segregation of races, the financial status that predominates the African American community, being generally disposed from their names and being replace with “nigger boy” or “nigger man,” being neglected the entrance to public places due to their skin color, to explaining to their children why they can’t live the same way as the other children. (King 167) King uses this strategy to cause the white Clergymen see more vividly the hardships African Americans have to carry with themselves. King spend a vast amount of time emphasizing with the burden that is put on African American children, perhaps King tried to touch upon a topic the Clergymen could relate to and find some empathy with his argument. Like many other men, the Clergymen have a family, wife a son or daughter, this is what King aimed at in his letter. Since they do not belong as to the African American community, King used an example that they were more likely to feel empathy towards, their children. The sentiment of the men toward their kids making them see the situation instead of black or white, they saw it as fathers,

King elaborates about his position and the weight of his organization, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia” (King, 164). Perhaps King’s intentions were to set an equal level between him and the Clergymen by showing that the Civil Rights was a serious matter that organization have been working on. Demonstrating how although their actions seem to be anarchistic since the movement “disrupted” the order by peacefully protesting in the streets of Birmingham, their intentions are beneficial for the African American community rather than a malicious movement. Along with his position as the leader of the SCLC, he is an African American referring to an issue affecting exclusively the African American community. His race validates the anecdotes he shares as an African American being constantly segregated and being looked down upon due to their ethnic background. His title and his organization makes the Civil Rights movement seem as an official matter rather than a simple event. Along with his title his race as an African American validates the hardships exposed by him in his