F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address And Letter From Birmingham City Jail

Improved Essays
Throughout the years many arguments have been set towards privileges and obligations of freedom. Freedom is an interesting thing. Freedom doesn’t just appear at he or she’s doorstep, but it can be earned. Many people criticize the freedom of other people because they don’t feel it can apply to them. They don’t think that anyone could have the same amount of freedom. Arguments can be made towards this because they don’t believe that everyone has the same amount of rights and privileges in the United States. This in some ways is true because even though freedom should be free to everyone, it isn’t. This is because ever since the Civil Rights movement, many people don’t look at all the races the same. The obligations to gain freedom are steep …show more content…
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address and from Letter from Birmingham City Jail. These two documents are very influential towards many different freedoms. This is because they are telling what they believe the many freedoms should be for the poor. They believe that the poor and the needy deserve the same amount of freedoms. Many people argue that this is already done, but if he or she looks closer into the political views they can see that it isn’t. The poor get the right to vote, but many job opportunities are not open to them because they didn’t have the money to go to school. Because of this many jobs, when they look at their resume, don’t see the educations and well pleased reports about how well they did in school, but what they don’t see is a person struggling for money and who is highly qualified for the job. This is why some resumes are blind. They can’t see the person writing them or how that person presents themselves, unless they are one of the people they pick. In John F. Kennedy’s address he states that they, “offer a special pledge . . . to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty.” This quote shows that in his term he is planning to help out the rights of the poor for the better. He plans to help out the poor in any way he can. An expert of John F. Kennedy describes the themes of his Inaugural Address states, “The lofty idea of freedom is …show more content…
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address both suggest many different obligations and freedoms in the United States, they do this by how freedom helps the poor, helps the different races, and the privileges of freedom in our day. Race is one of the most controversial aspects in our lives today. The Civil Rights Movement expanded over a span of more than ten years. It was from 1954-1968. As he or she can see, there are many different ways he or she can look at this movement, in that it took fourteen years to fix. After it was fixed it still wasn’t perfect because the slaves hadn’t done anything else in their lives, besides their slaving away in the fields of the whites. Many didn’t know how to do anything else. No one understood this concept or else he or she would think something would have happened, except he or she would never know because the rights were still not fair after this project. At the beginning of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration the African-Americans were not fully imparted into political rights. The Presidential Library and Museum of John F. Kennedy states, “African Americans throughout much of the South were denied the right to vote, barred from public facilities, subjected to insults and violence, and could not expect justice from the courts” (Museum). This shows that many people didn’t want this to happen and didn’t understand why anyone would even want this, they said this because many people

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Dr. King is a prime example of working against oppression and finding a way to get justice for society. When discussing Dr. King, we looked at the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that Dr. King had written when working on his non-violent resistance in Birmingham. In this letter he had laid out the four parts it takes to have a successful non-violent action. The first part is collecting facts, making sure that there actually harm or happening and you have evidence to back it up. This part is important as the first step because you do not want to jump into action without direct knowledge or without witnessing the oppression-taking place.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anyone reading this letter has something to look back on as inspiration. Martin Luther King truly projected through his words, as well as greatly performed his reasoning both clearly and constructively. His use of factual sources from our history and documentation makes it almost impossible to refuse his side of the argument. His choice of vocabulary skills, theoretical, and abstract languaging provides a credible background of education. As well as making his readers believe his actions to be both void and true.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Robert Kennedy use his position power words to pursued people as he state it, “Hand in hand with freedom of speech and goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men’s lives.” (BrainyQuotes, 2017) First, I will discuss three things that connect President Abraham Lincoln and Baptist Minister Mr. Luther M. King Jr. between the President Lincoln’s addressee in his second term inauguration and Dr. King’s letter while he was Birmingham jail. Secondly, how the position power and their assistance to make this change successful. Thirdly, what attracts my attention of President Lincoln’s addressee in his second term inauguration and Dr. King’s letter while he was Birmingham jail.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One who reads “Letters From a Birmingham Jail” in this day and age would be petrified and disgusted at the back story to Dr. Martin Luther King’s imprisonment. The sheer fact that he was arrested for nonviolent and legal protest would aggravate any man, however it is apparent that Dr. King took the opportunity to capitalize on the situation and transform it into an aspiring lecture. I believe that Dr. King’s purpose in writing the letter was a combination of attempting to move, delight, and teach what should be a rudimentary lesson to the clergymen who criticized his actions of protest after the mayoral elections.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Expository Writing Prompt Brennen kaawa feb.1/ 2017 In this writing prompt i'm going to explain the importance of martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail and i am also going to explain the cause and effects of his letter in specific detail The letter that martin luther king wrote was so into detail that it was like this man was ahead of his time. He stated in his letter so many metaphors, quotes and so many heartbreaking facts that it was absolutely unbelievable. What also made his letter good is he went to church with it and used countless facts strait out of the bible i guess that it really payed off being a theologian.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    From the letter that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while in Birmingham Jail were very deep in there meaning and strength in regards to the segregation between the White American and the African American community in America. From these letters the most shocking realization is how although there was no laws regarding the demonstrations that were happening at the time the Black community were still being jailed and mistreated. The police were not treating them as if they were humans, they would set the police dogs on the men and let them sink their teeth into as if they were another animal. As for the young and elderly members of the African American community they would be slapped, kicked and beat.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Martin Luther King Junior’s Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. emphasizes the importance of equality and justice in his letter to the people of Birmingham, Alabama. King writes, from his jail cell, about the injustice he has seen and he offers ways of fixing it. His plans starts with acquiring an understanding of the difference between a just and unjust law and how to react to them.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” encompasses the purpose behind the movement and reveals King as a strong rhetorician. Through his letter, King provides a detailed look into the racial inequality taking place in that time. King’s eloquent response to the clergymen dispels their criticisms and presents a strong argument for racial equality. Throughout the letter, King references different philosophers in order to establish himself as an intelligent and legitimate authority.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Timeless Cruelty “People speak sometimes about the bestial cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.” Claims Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. On April 16, 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is a letter that illustrates oppression being a large battle fought in this generation and location. In different ways, Dr. King describes how to dismantle the walls of segregation portrayed with literary devices such as words with strong diction, parallelism, and juxtaposition.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Numerous years passed before rights were given. Above all, African Americans reached a beneficial…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reno Cantle Burlingame AP LA 31 October 17 Letter From Birmingham Jail Distinguished social activist, Martin Luther King Jr., in his letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, expounds the reasons behind the nonviolent demonstration which took place in Birmingham in 1963, the defining year of the Civil Rights Movement. The main purpose that King pursues in this letter is to inform the eight religious leaders of the South who called the demonstration “unwise” and “untimely” of their wrong judgment regarding the demonstration. Attempting to reach the purpose of the letter, King effectively convinces his audience that their judgment on the matter is totally wrong and the peaceful parade was the only justified way left for the black community to ask…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jesus Duran Professor Rodolfo C. Villarreal History 1302 October 9, 2015 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Letters from Birmingham jail is a letter that was written by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16, 1963 from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. This is where King was arrested for participating in a peaceful march in which he did not have a parade permit. Martin Luther King Jr. was very upset because the church and the “white people” were not supporting the religious civil rights movement. King was in Birmingham because he was the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by which the organization was associated with 85 others in southern United States.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the best interpreters of the Socratic tradition of philosophy because of how he used Socrates' meanings of philosophy in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail. King Jr. not only stated great key points of Socrates ideas throughout the letter but he also had many of the same beliefs as Socrates. However, one can argue that King Jr. mostly defended a racial problem throughout the letter and Socrates faced the facts about philosophy and what he believed to be just, but King Jr. was also using philosophy to show that a law can be just in the eyes of people but really at the same time it is unjust. He used Socrates theories and questioning as a wakeup call to all the people in America; through philosophy he showed…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A man’s hope for a change doesn’t grow weary: a change never comes about without a fight, a fight that most times involves violence, either a direct or an indirect violence. One such man, a pastor, a leader of the southern Christian leadership conference, and an author Martin Luther King Jr , wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written on April 12, 1963 in the Birmingham jail. He claim against the injustice towards the black community in the United States, especially in the southern part and sets up an elite case for equality for all races using biblical, philosophical, and political references. King uses emotional appeals, ethical appeals, and logical appeals to persuade his hostile ministers from Birmingham throughout his letter, which is effective because it 's convincing to his comrades and the United States as a whole.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Civil Rights movement was spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the end of the Jim Crow era, resulting in the successful passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite these progressive changes in favor of African Americans, the struggles have never fully disappeared. Alexander contends that the caste system of slavery and post-slavery and the days of Jim Crow have simply been revamped for our modern day through the criminal justice…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays