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The Public Statement By Alabama Clergymen Summary

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The Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen was a response to the protest that were going on during the height of the civil rights movement in Alabama. They claimed that the protests were “extreme”, “unwise” and “untimely”. Although they suggested that they agreed racial segregation was wrong, they urge people to stop supporting the protest and to let the state handle the problem.
One important point in this statement is that the Clergymen agreed that racism was a problem. My thoughts on this point is that if they know that it is a problem, then why haven’t they been trying to fix it? Why do African American’s in Alabama continue to keep getting treated unequally and poorly? Personally, I think by the Clergymen stating that they understand
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Samford University professor Jonathan Bass has argued against the vitriolic responses to the eight Alabama clergymen. The essence of Bass’ argument is that while the white clergymen can easily be called close-minded hypocrites, further scrutiny reveals that their intentions were fairly aligned with that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s and that of the black community in Birmingham, Alabama. The eight clergymen elaborated in their public statement that, “When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets” (Eight Alabama Clergymen, par. 7). The misconception that Bass reveals is that the white clergymen were denouncing King’s demonstrations, when they were actually

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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.

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Dr. King’s response to the Clergymen’s statements seems to “just” their “unjust assumptions. Starting with Dr. King using his authority of being a person of color; while the Clergymen have legal authority they do not have racial authority. The Clergymen have not experienced the racial prejudice that Martin Luther King and the black community have. Martin Luther King uses examples such as “When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.” (page 176 paragraph 14)

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The audience for the clergymen was primarily the Negro community who were constrained by the belief that they were being heavily oppressed. The audience for Martin Luther King Jr.

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Us rabbis, ministers, and priests want only what is best for our Negro brethren and the common good. In our original address on the violent demonstrations, we urge our Negro community to “unite locally in working peacefully” to better Birmingham. We are not making an opposition to the goal of the movement—we fully support it. What we cannot encourage

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Dr. King expressed the beauty of all the churches in the south, but Dr. King wondered why the African Americans in these churches didn't use their voices to stand up against injustice. Dr. Kings wonders, "what kind of people worship here? " Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification?

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Dr. King uses these impactful words to tell the clergymen that freedom for African-Americans will happen and that this is what needs to happen to pull it off. Wrapped up in grandness of this paragraph, King infuses these words with a great amount of emotion designed to pull at the clergymen's sense of duty to his fellow man and convey the simple fact that his actions have not been "unwise and untimely," it has just been a long time

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As a witness for blacks who were voiceless and ignored, he speaks out against the white church for saying little about slavery and racial justice. His passion for social justice comes from growing up in Arkansas in the Jim Crow era. The memories of his father and lynch mobs never left him. Black church comforted him, but made him wonder. “If the white churches are Christian, how come they segregate us?

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That same year King was arrested in one of these marches because he did not have a permit. While in jail he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to white clergy who were telling him his tactics were “untimely” and “unwise.” He needed the clergy to understand that many innocent lives have been taken in the fight against injustice. Although King uses an abundance of rhetorical appeals, logos and allusion are the most effective because they earn King the readers’ trust, help the clergymen better understand the civil rights movement from a biblical perspective.

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Porterfield’s speech to Alabama residents on March 24, 1965. In his speech, he claims that the preachers who support these marchers are supporting an immoral cause, claiming that the Selma Marches were not a case of “segregation vs. integration; it is not a question of civil rights; but it is morality vs. immorality” (Porterfield 4). Porterfield sought to discredit the Selma Marchers by labelling them as immoral people, and by this logic, unrighteous people cannot support a truly righteous cause. According to Porterfield, the immorality of the protestors further reveals itself because of accounts that marchers at the time were “guilty of committing fornication” in Selma on the streets (2). Porterfield’s reaction to the protests is to create a false narrative to back his own racist views on the Selma Marches.

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The criticism made by the these eight clergyman epitomize the idea of whiteness and white privilege. Rather than to offer assistance and guidance for King and his efforts to diminish racial injustices prevalent in the South, they, instead, offer criticism in an attempt to depreciate King’s fight for racial equity. This rhetoric has occurred often throughout American history, where we see white individuals devaluing and hindering the progress made by individuals of color. For example, one of the critiques that King received was that The Negro community should be more patient and wait for society to move gradually toward civil rights. What white individuals fail to understand is that there is no such thing

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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.

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Dr. King’s letter is filled with powerful statements and information to assist people in understanding the injustice and discrimination impacting blacks in Alabama and in other states. Although many northerners believed that the racism in the south was not important to them, Dr. King emphasized, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere” (King). Dr. King urged northerners not to stand silent and instead understand that what was going on in the south easily could spread to the north. Dr. King’s letter also addressed whether all laws must be followed. King stated, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.

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King uses biblical allusions to appeal to the eight white clergymen and their religious affiliation when he states his duty to carry the “gospel of freedom beyond his home town... Like Paul.” His final point of this section is the clergymen’s failure to recognize the underlying causes of the demonstrations they so harshly condemn, a failure causing further ignorance and confusion on racial

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