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Dr King Letter From Birmingham Jail Essay

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing civil rights leader. In 1963, Dr. King and some other civil rights actives went down to Birmingham, Alabama to help in the fight to end inequality. During a nonviolent demonstration Dr. King and countless other protestors were arrested and sent to a Birmingham jail. While in prison Dr. King had time to think and he took this time to write to his fellow clergymen who critics the nonviolent demonstrations. The letter is entitle "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". The main topic of the letter is nonviolent direct actions done in Birmingham. The main argument of Dr. King's letter is how the nonviolent direct actions are wise and timely.

The way Dr. King constructs his argument is almost like he is preaching. Dr. King was a minster and he came from a long line of African American minters, so in his letter this part of him came through in his letter. Some people may believe that because the letter sounds preachy it would make people not want to read the letter, however the preachiness is what moves a person when they are reading it. When reading the letter one can almost hear Dr. King preaching the letter to him or her. Take of instance when the …show more content…

King argument is validity for different reasons. One reason Dr. King's argument is valid is because he was apart of the nonviolent campaigns. Dr. King is not someone sitting at home watching the news and seeing the horrible acts happening in Birmingham he is actually along side the South's "real heroes". Another reason Dr, King's argument that the nonviolent demonstrations are not "unwise or untimely is valid is due to the fact he is explains why people are fighting for equality of all and why they are fighting now. Dr. King explains that African Americans have been waiting for centuries for their rights that all Americans citizens are suppose to have. African Americans were tired of being disrespected and opposed and like Dr. King put it an opposed people can stay opposed

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Letter From Birmingham Jail In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for leading a nonviolent protest against Jim Crow Laws in Birmingham, Alabama. While in his jail cell, King wrote a letter to the Alabama clergymen defending and explaining his reason for nonviolent protesting and his involvement in protests outside his own town. Martin Luther King Jr. uses several literary devices such as, pathos, allusions, and parallelism to address the clergymen about nonviolent protesting, injustice within communities and the nation, and his disappointment in the church.

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Dr. King wrote the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to a letter written by the Eight Alabama Clergymen who were protesting the progress of desegregation in Birmingham through peaceful acts by the Negro community. King responds to the eight clergymen in a respectful but yet stern and intelligent way. The clergymen expressed that they felt the Negro community 's actions were untimely, unwise, and disrespectful. The clergymen felt that these ethnic issues should be addressed in a court room and not on the corner. Although they understood where King was coming from, they felt like these actions would result in violence.

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In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he is addressing the Clergymen, more specifically the white church and its leadership who criticized his efforts in the civil rights movement, by calling his demonstrations unwise and untimely. He is also simultaneously addressing the national audience as well in letting them know of the injustices of the time. It was 1963, and Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter from inside a jail cell. He had been arrested during an anti-segregation march for not having a valid parading permit in Birmingham, Alabama. In this letter he addresses the criticisms that were brought forth to him.

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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.

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1. King addresses “The Clergyman” in his response letter from a Birmingham jail in attempts to refute and further explain his position and reason for his actions. In response to their claims that his methods we “unwise and untimely” (King 800) he begins with a layout of why he feels that this letter and distinction is important and why he has come to Birmingham. It is in no uncertain terms a brief history of why and how he became involved in the activities if Birmingham. King argues, “Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” (King 800) laying the ground work and rationale for his involvement and actions.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail to address the issue of racial injustice in Birmingham and the United States at the time. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" discusses the great injustices happening toward the Black community in Birmingham, as well as serve as a rebuttal to the eight clergymen arguments. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses his appeals to emotion to establish his credibility on the topic of the racial discrimination and injustice that was occurring during that time, as well justify his reasons for protests. King wanted to make his letter come from an emotional standpoint to make the audience of clergymen feel the strong emotion and pain he was feeling about the outrage of acts and justify his cause of writing. “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and

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Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, argues against criticism from eight Alabama clergymen, and addresses their concerns. He defends his position, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), against accusations of disturbing the peace in Birmingham, as well as explaining his values and opinions. Throughout the letter, King adopts a strong logical and credible tone, and reinforces his position through the use of strong emotional justifications, in order to appeal to the clergymen and defend his public image. Martin Luther King opens up his Letter from Birmingham City Jail by appealing to the clergymen's emotions, and assuring his peaceful response, which he describes in "patient and

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In his letter he is mainly reaching out to the entire country to try and get them to put a stop to racial injustice. The way that he addressed and refuted the clergymen's letter is one of the things that made this letter most effective. Another thing that made this letter so effective, is the way that he used the appeal to emotion, or pathos, to pull the readers in and make them think about if it were them that were being discriminated against. Martin Luther King Jr. is very successful in explaining how injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

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Essay #2: Argumentative Analysis Martin Luther King Jr. introduced a very controversial argument about why he believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”(264). In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stated that justice is never given by the oppressor and the reason why his protests were very relevant and wise was because the issues needed to be addressed right then and not later. Moving along throughout his entire letter his primary thesis seemed to be that if the people wanted to be free from racial injustice they needed to participate in nonviolent protests. Given his setting and atmosphere, MLK did an extremely impressive job of using kairos and other rhetorical techniques in his piece.

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By doing this, King is showing the white clergymen respect. As King was himself a leader in many roles, such as a minister, husband, and civil rights activist, he understands the importance of respect. King understands that respect is earned and not given freely. So to show the clergymen respect in a public letter was a pretty big deal. King also is showing that he knows that without respect going both ways, negotiation is impossible.

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In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail because of a peaceful protest, protesting treatments of blacks in Birmingham. Before the protest a court ordered that protests couldn’t be held in Birmingham. While being held in Birmingham, King wrote what came to be known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Not even King himself could predict how much of an impact this letter would have on the Civil Rights Movement. In the letter kind defended Kings beliefs on Nonviolent Protests, King also counters the accusations of him breaking laws by categorizing segregation laws into just and unjust laws. King uses this principle to help persuade others to join him in his acts of civil disobedience.

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He writes this letter to defend his organization and peaceful protesting, yet also identifies the racial injustices he, and many other citizens received. King’s writing was very effective in accomplishing his goal to get his point across that segregation is a very serious thing. King hopes that his powerful and emotional message in his letter will impact how the clergymen, the whites, and many others approach and take action towards segregation. He hopes that they will see how terrible inequality truly is and make the American Society have less hate and more

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In Dr.King’s letter, he had more time than he could have asked for to write this. He wanted to show the white clergymen that they were wrong and judged him wrong. So, King used more logical appeals in this letter like putting in facts that would back up his statement rather than the speech. King uses allusions first off to link his actions to others that have done similar things in the past.

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In “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. In the letter, Dr. King uses ethos, diction, and allusions when defending nonviolent protest which makes his argument really strong. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. He uses ethos to build up credibility.

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Dr. King's, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is poignant in many ways in regard to a "big picture" viewpoint of our society. Overall, it speaks to the viewpoint that we all have a social responsibility to each other to work against injustice irrespective of where that injustice takes place. "Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in April 16, 1963, is a passionate letter that addresses and responds to the issue and criticism that a group of white clergymen had thrown at him and his pro- black American organization about his and his organization's non- violent demonstrative actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black Americans in Birmingham. Dr. King told the local clergy in Birmingham that he understood he was an outsider and he realized that his presence in Birmingham would cause trouble. However, he also felt that he had a moral

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