Social activist, Martin Luther King Jr, in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, addresses the exigency of changing segregation laws. King’s purpose is to emphasize the damage the segregation laws have brought upon black people. He adopts an urgent tone in order to establish that he is tired of waiting for change to occur in his clergymen readers. King appeals to emotion in his letter to the clergymen from Birmingham by declaring that he is tired of hearing the world “wait” by the people who have never felt the effects of the segregation laws.
In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to “A Call for Unity,” a declaration by eight clergymen, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Through powerful, emotionally-loaded diction, syntax, and figurative language, King adopts a disheartened tone later shifts into a determined tone in order to express and reflect on his disappointment with the church’s inaction and his goals for the future. King begins this section by bluntly stating that he is “greatly disappointed” (33) with the church, though he “will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen” (33). By appealing to ethos and informing the audience of his history with the church, he indicates that he is not criticizing the church for his own sake, but for the good of the church.
Racism has been an important issue that plays a huge role in today’s society. In Roy Peter Clark’s article “Why it worked”, he expressed his views on Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union”. Also comparing it to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In Obama’s speech he discussed the constitution and racial segregation in America, and the comments made by Reverend J. Wright, his former pastor. He also tells a little about his racial background.
I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago” (303). Martin Luther King goes on about how very few people who were Christian regardless of their skin color failed to do anything in terms of change for equality. He also states, “They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.””(305). It is people like this who stand on the opposite sides on the spectrum who determine the amount of justice that can be done. Although some white Christians did admit that at one point African Americans would have their rights given to them not many
In the movie “Selma” the director focuses more on the problems in Selma and Martin Luther King’s involvement in the march from Selma to Montgomery. The purpose of the march was to fight for equal voting rights. Whereas in The movie “Malcolm X” The director showed a lot of background information about Malcolm before he became a civil rights activist.. The directors of these two movies used background information, religion and their separate approaches on how to handle the civil rights movement, as ways to differentiate the two leaders.
Violent, racist terrorism against African Americans was at its peak when Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested in 1963. Before his arrest, Dr. King went to Birmingham to protest for injustice and segregation, but his methods were to destructive for the community. In the missive, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, makes an effort to convince his fellow eight white clergymen that it is time to take immediate actions towards injustice and the increased violence among people. By appealing to ethos and pathos, Dr. King convinces his fellow clergymen of the unfairness of segregation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist from Georgia. After being arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King wrote a letter that would eventually become one of the most important documents of the Civil Rights Movement. The Letter from Birmingham Jail, was “ostensibly addressed,” to the clergymen of Alabama (Westbrook, par. 7). It was really written for white moderates and President John F. Kennedy. Dr. King`s letter defends the nonviolent resistance by African Americans and criticized the clergymen`s Call for Unity.
On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to seven, white clergymen as a response to their criticisms of King’s approach to tackle segregation and other racial issues in Birmingham, Alabama. Coincidentally, King was also a clergyman—a clergyman with tons of influence as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that has 85 affiliated groups. Throughout his letter, King’s use of allusions both of historical and religious significance supports King’s position as a highly influential and educated clergyman, provide the inspirations behind King’s strategy of nonviolence, and a strong ethos to criticize his fellow clergymen who act as bystanders. In the beginning of King’s letter, the first thing he does is to address his own credibility the seven clergymen questioned.
Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America.
He explains the hopes of his movement, as well as the ignorance of the people keeping racism unresolved. His speaks in depth of the lack of human rights, the fraudulent American government, and the unification of African Americans. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s childhood gives insight on their approach to freedom fighting as well as their similar message of uniting Americans; with their differences in conveying their message their contrasting legacy is shown through their writings. One’s upbringing has a large effect on their future. From an early age, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s life were very unalike.
Dailey stages the allegation of miscegenation being the root religious civil rights issues with the theology of Segregation, the effects of the Brown decision, and the Ministers march. As a whole, Dailey emphasizes the importance of the testimonies that segregation was “the commandment and law of God”. Also, that most historians tend to “pass” over this topic, condemning “the most lasting triumph of the civil rights movement: its successful appropriation of Christian Dogma” (Dailey 122). “…why
Introduction: Malcom X urges the Negro community to fight to gain the equal rights they deserve by taking action against their white oppressors. He emphasizes that blacks will gain their rights either thorough voting, with the ballot, or else through the inevitable violence with the bullet. Thesis [part a] Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., also fighting for the civil rights of black Americans in the 1960s, but in a more peaceful manner, Malcom X takes a different approach.
Eliciting to the clergymen’s desire to follow in the footsteps of their heroes, the Christian martyrs, Dr. King creates an irrefutable argument that his nonviolent protesters are the real heroes. He develops this idea when he said, “They will be old, oppressed, battered, Negro women, symbolized in a seventy- two- year- old woman”. By giving a common face to his cause, Dr. King presents the argument that his protests do not represent a few blacks, but an entire ethnic group. Dr. King purposefully made his protesters easily identifiable to show a lack of fear for individuals who may try to hurt them and their willingness to stand up for what they believe in.
Maria Ahmed 7th Period The movie Selma details Martin Luther King Jr. and his fight in the 1960s. More specifically the movie depicts the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery. The blacks already the voting rights but because of laws like Jim Crowe segregation laws they were denied when registering to vote. The movie shows also what paved the way to the Civil Rights Act.
Many countries concurred with Luther King and agreed with his ideas because he made a difference for African-Americans and took a stand against racism. Yet the question today, over forty years later is: Was the African-American civil rights movement an overall success? Or is it the same now as it was back in 50’s and 60’s? For the purpose of this assignment the author will explore the literature and discuss the notion that racism and equality has changed as a result of the civil rights movement.
