An Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

Up until the mid 1960s, Alabama's constitution rested upon white supremacy as a basic element of governance. The Jim Crow era championed the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine, which became the status quo in the United States until the mid 20th century, especially in the deep south. In his essay, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr., a human rights activist heading the civil rights movement, addresses a group of Alabama clergyman’s specific concerns about the movement while at the same time discussing a larger topic of equal rights for everyone. King refutes the deeply dogmatic regime of segregation, the legal and social system of separating citizens on the basis of race. The formal and informal policies of repression, such as separate public accommodations, limited access to suffrage, and strict control over black labor were put into place between the 1870s and the 1890s. At the time he wrote his letter, King was confined to a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. He was arrested for parading without a permit while …show more content…
establishes his authority to his audience of clergymen and defends the need for immediate action towards racial equality. King is not only writing a letter in response to the clergymen addressing their concerns about the civil rights movement, he is also refuting the separate but equal mentality that was a societal norm for so long in the United States. It is in this that his exigence is clear; as citizens of America, we all deserve the same rights- no matter what our ethnic background may be. He provides a rather unbeatable argument towards the injustice of segregation by quoting respected figures and using emotional accounts to connect with his audience. King’s honest and persuasive persona help him to illustrate to his audience the concept of equality for what it is; the irrefutable God-given right of equal opportunity for all in which no compromise can deputize