Letter To Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was writing this letter in Birmingham Jail, he had a main purpose in mind. He shows his support for nonviolent resistance when it comes to racism. He refers to the resistance movement he and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were involved in, in the city of Birmingham. They were protesting the segregation occurring in public facilities, since he wanted to desegregate the different areas. He believes their actions were correct in every way and the letter was written to the clergymen who believed that King and the SCLC’s actions were incorrect. His motive was to go against the criticisms of the clergymen that put him in jail to show them that he was proud of the protest he was involved in and …show more content…
To begin with, the “gospel of freedom” was used after mentioning the “gospel of Christ”. However, the “gospel of freedom” is slightly different in a way because he refers to need to continue fighting (nonviolently) for the rights of African Americans. In some ways, the “gospel of freedom” can be thought of as making sure that people understand that African Americans are also God’s children and therefore deserve “freedom”. The “white power structure” is another term King uses in his essay. This structure is what is causing white superiority to rise and retaining African Americans to be equal, which leads to an increase in discrimination. Because of this, the white power structure is forcing King and many others to take action to try and stop this segregation. The next term in the essay is “direct action”. When King mentions this in his essay, he begins by referring to the process of his nonviolent movement. Direct action is important in this movement because in the end, direct action was taken, where work begins toward the movement of desegregation. Without direct action, the movement of desegregation wouldn’t have occurred in the time it did. This word is represented in his essay because it refers to how the movement that began the way it did with King and the SCLC. King also uses the term “unjust laws”. This is very important as it is mentioned multiple times throughout his essay. When referring to unjust laws, he also acknowledges just laws. However, he makes sure to create a definite distinction between the two terms. When writing about unjust laws, he refers to the laws written that morally should be disobeyed since it’s “out of harmony with the moral law”. He uses the specific term unjust laws to make sure there is a distinction between laws that should be followed and laws he believed should not be followed. “Human progress” is yet another word in King’s letter. This is about the progress that