Birmingham Jail Argument

The point I wish to raise in my argument is based not on personal contemplation, but on important questions that go beyond the capacity of this present trial. I would also like to indicate that in the development of this application I am intermittently going to refer to the white man and the white people. I want to at once to make it clear that I am no racialist, and I detest racialism, because I regard it as a inhuman thing, whether it comes from a black man or from a white man.
In its proper meaning, equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of laws by which one is governed, a constitution, which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief …show more content…
Why is it that I am forced to face a white man’s court? Can anyone honestly justify that in our atmosphere, the scales of justice are evenly …show more content…
I feel oppressed, as I know many others are by this atmosphere of white domination that spreads all around this courtroom like an infection. This atmosphere calls to mind inhuman injustices caused to my people outside this courtroom.
It reminds me that I am voiceless because there is a parliament in my country that is white-controlled. I am aware that in many cases of this nature in the past, South African courts have upheld the right of the African people to work for democratic changes. Some political officers have even openly criticised the policy, which refuses to acknowledge that all men are born free and equal, and boldly condemned the denial of opportunities to our people.
Such exceptions furnish yet more proof that even among the country’s whites; there are honest men whose sense of fairness and justice revolts against the cruelty perpetrated by their own white people.
There are a few honest and upright whites and they have certainly not succeeded in convincing the vast majority of the rest of the white population that white supremacy leads to dangers and