By reading both “Alabama Clergymen’s Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr” and “Letter from Birmingham City Jail- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr” the reader becomes aware of how passionate and rightfully life changing Martin Luther King Jr’s movements were. The first letter, sent to King by an Alabama clergymen, is an perfect representation of the painfully common defiance white leaders had towards the oppressed blacks. The clergymen also drops the classic “wait”, saying that if King stops his demonstrations, “equality” and “peace” will eventually ease into the white leaders minds. The second letter is written by King to the clergymen, addressing in the most calm way possible just how wrong he is, and how these demonstrations need to cause tension.
In Dr. King’s letter, he is responding to the outside world by calling him and the individuals involved, unwise. Dr. King argues that for justice, they had no other choice but to do this. The three themes I noticed in this letter was; injustice, religion, and nonviolent actions. As we all know, Dr. King was all about nonviolent acts of protesting. In his letter, he writes, “Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary” (King).
Overcoming injustice and oppression is a difficult thing to do. Overcoming institutional, century’s old, outright and abject injustice and oppression is another animal all together. In a letter written from his Birmingham jail cell, Dr. King weaves philosophical ideals and scriptural/moral principles into a fabric of reason which absolutely decimates the foundations of segregation and its active or tacit supporters. While providing clear proof of his deep understanding of the issue at hand, Dr. King authors a moving yet emotionally grounded appeal to his fellow man about their sense of justice, morality, responsibility, and motive in placing one race above another.
Martin Luther King, Jr. attempts to persuade clergymen to follow in his civil rights movement through exhibiting his knowledge over just and unjust laws, displaying peaceful behavior, and empathetic diction. King was very knowledgeable about laws and his right as a human. King stated laws in his letter to the clergymen, which displayed his credibility. He did not only state laws, he also stated just and unjust laws. King stated, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?”
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great example, he fought for his country to gain this freedom even though he went to jail and went against the law trying to accomplish his goal. As the author states in his letter “ We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present because the goal of America is freedom”)(Luther King 240). Following Martin Luther King words we have the mission to accomplish this if we work together. At that time that Luther king wrote this letter the major problem was in Birmingham.
By analyzing statements of Dr. King’s word, his words shows very powerful message across the nations because his strong words motivated people to choose right path and fight for their rights. He states that the person, who breaks laws through non-violence, shows the greatest respect for the laws. By his statement, I believed that Dr. King. trying to shows an individual who follows the rule of civil disobedience will greatly shows the respect for laws; even though an individual will punish by the worse consequences. A person who has to willing to accept the result from the direct actions, self-purification. Negotiation, than she /he will be loyal to the rules
The reason for open letters are so, that the author can get his/her point across in a time of need, on behalf of justice, or on behalf of others. In Dr.King’s open letter “The letter from Birmingham jail” is a mixture of both commentary genre and rebuttal microgenre as he commentates his opinions on the injustices that the blacks of the south face with the white supremacists, throughout the open letter Dr.King argues why the act of nonviolence is the best way to solve segregation in the south. The discomfort of being in jail for acting against racism gives Dr.King the motivation for writing this open letter, in the open letter, King expresses the discomfort of having that the racial justice of his people have been too long denied by stating
Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail on April 12th, 1963 because he and others were protesting the treatment of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. The court had ordered that King could not hold any protests in Birmingham. He was held for twenty-four hours without the right to contact a lawyer. When he was finally allowed contact with the outside world, he stumbled across a letter that was published in a newspaper. The letter criticized the protests and labeled them unwise.
The purpose of Martin Luther King's letter is to justify the reasoning for why the people of Birmingham (including him) were protesting. When the local clergymen (who were most likely white men) said that Martin Luther King was an outside agitator, it could paint a picture that the people protesting were "unruly" or destructive. So this letter clears up the misunderstanding that the people of Birmingham are unreasonable and destructive to those who would quickly feed onto the negative narrative that black people already have. Martin Luther King highlights the fact that Birmingham has been one of the most segregated cities in the United States and the black homes and churches of Birmingham being a target of bombing. He believed that this was
Martin Luther King, the most well known civil rights activist and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 16, 1963. He was arrested for protesting without a license. Martin Luther King wrote a letter while in jail in response to the clergymen and the public stating that he will no longer sit and wait to be heard. While writing his letter, Martin Luther King uses rhetorical devices to develop his argument. Martin Luther King established credibility through his letter.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of the demonstration was to bring awareness and end to racial disparity in Birmingham. Later that night, King and his followers were detained by city authorities. While in custody, King wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter voiced out his disappointment in the criticisms, and oppositions that the general public and clergy peers obtained.
I believe that paragraphs 9 and 12 from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” are the strongest paragraphs in this letter of his. These paragraph is so profound and truly explain why segregation is unjust in two short paragraphs. They don’t go into a lot of detail on why segregation is unjust, because they don’t need to. They’re argument is strong enough with how short they are. Since these paragraphs give an easy to understand and short reasoning as to why segregation is unjust, explains what makes a law just or unjust, and show that just laws can be unjust when applied to situations such as segregation, I believe they are the strongest paragraphs in this letter.
Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote a letter referring Birmingham, Alabama as “Bombingham.” In the late summer of 1963 King wrote his unforgettable letter, “A Letter From Birmingham Jail” responding to the criticism from eight prominent white clergy man. They say the letter was smuggled out on ragged toilet paper by King’s lawyer. The letter exemplifies King’s negative feelings towards the unjust events taking place in Birmingham during the 1960’s. The letter is sought out to appeal to various audiences.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” “defends the use of non-violent protest to fight racism, and based upon Christian beliefs and natural law, he explains why people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws” (viii). This text relates to the CIT claim, “The dignity of every human being is inviolable and the commitment to justice for the common good is necessary.” “All human beings- regardless of their race, gender, religion, class, ethnicity, or sexual orientation- have innate dignity and it is our responsibility to respect that dignity, in ourselves and in others” (ix). The reason for Dr. King’s presence in Birmingham was because injustice was there.
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