Martin Luther King Jr., an activist and leader for the civil rights movement, wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail and gave the famous “I Have A Dream” speech. While the letter is not as publicly acknowledged today, Dr. Kings speech will go down in history as one of the most influential and well-remembered speeches of all time. In Dr. Kings letter from Birmingham Jail, he addresses a group of men criticizing his actions in Birmingham. While holding his ground, Dr. King expresses his concerns using respectful words while providing straightforward examples of what they accused him of, and why they are wrong in those accusations. As a whole, his letter states that he was in Birmingham for the main reason of battling injustice and being a voice for the hopeless. The accusations against him often made him appear to be much more uncooperative than he truly was, and in the letter Dr. King is constantly mentioning his beliefs on how these types of situations should be handled. Dr. King highlights the fact that he believes in nonviolent action and that …show more content…
The speech was broadcasted live, allowing the country to feel and react to Dr. Kings moving words in real time. Dr. King was also a phenomenal public speaker, and that was definitely a contributing factor to the passion people felt listening to him. The speech directly affected civil rights movement in many ways. It shined a light on the issue, reaching out to the entire Nation and automatically involving everyone that has ever heard the speech due to its cry for immediate unity. Dr. King used it as an opportunity to push for the importance of non-violence, even when it may have felt like the only option to some. It also gave African Americans a positive figure to admire and look up to during this time of desperation. JFK was concerned about the Civil Rights Act being pushed back due to the