Summary Of Martin Luther King Letter From Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist in the late 1950s and 1960s. He was leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and fought against segregation through nonviolent means. At that time in the South, African Americans were forced to sit in the back of buses, were prohibited from drinking out of water fountains that were used by whites, were forced to attend segregated schools, and were not allowed to sleep in motels. After a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, King was arrested. He addresses and responds to “A Call for Unity” that the eight local clergymen questioned King’s methods due to the injustices and inequalities that the white moderates were doing to the African Americans that King saw in America, especially

For example, in 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that, “separate but equal,” protection would be given to all African Americans, but in the twentieth century the decision was made to separate public facilities between African Americans and the white moderates. King’s actions in Birmingham, Alabama, was a push for equal rights among all Americans through nonviolent means. He protested these laws that he felt was needed and without them he believed segregation would still remain the same in the South; however, unjust laws are no laws at all, but simply are laws that are not natural. Along with ending segregation, King wanted unjust laws to be abolished even if it meant going to jail for eight days. King also uses his readers’ knowledge by drawing comparisons to history by using the stylistic techniques to reference the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and to various theologians because he felt that he was doing God’s work, not only were these theologians considered extremists, but King also considered himself to be an extremist. He also uses other stylistic techniques to enrich and emphasis his ideas and points that is used in King’s

Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activists leader and extremist of the African American Civil Rights Movement who knew that there were injustices and inequalities that he has seen in America that the white moderates were doing. He wants unjust laws to be abolished and for segregation to end, however King accomplishes this towards the end of 1965 when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. In order for his readers to know what King is hoping for, he uses three appeals in his argument, logos, pathos, and ethos to grasp the readers with reasoning to the issue, to put forth emotion to the issue, and to apply authority to the issue; King attempts to demonstrate logic and position, and attempts to create sympathy to the cause. He knew that by going to jail only meant that he was putting a stop to something that he and his fellow followers were wanting to end. The eight local clergymen only saw King as a troublemaker and an outsider, but he goes on to tell them that he was invited by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, however, his argument is intended for the clergymen who he speaks directly and hostile to, but also for a much broader audience that he speaks to as a whole. King uses stylistic techniques such as alluding to references in hopes of providing historical context to enlarge the issue that is being written about because he felt that he was doing God’s work. He then goes on towards the end of his argument apologizing to his readers