Jr. in his letter from Birmingham City Jail voices his reason for engaging in a nonviolent direct action program against unjust segregation laws. Martin Luther King. Jr. believes that unjust institutions negate human personality and human dignity. Kant argues that in order to cultivate our minds a revolution may be needed in order to halt power-seeking oppression. Martin Luther believes that injustice resides in Birmingham and that the only plausible way to relinquish…
in direct action, protesting in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. King and the protesters were jailed, and here it was that Martin Luther King Jr. crafted the text “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” King 's letter responded to the clergyman of Birmingham ,whose own writing, published in the Birmingham newspaper, denounced King for the timing and intention of the protests and requested that the actions cease. King 's response in “The Letter from a Birmingham Jail” provided inspiration for many…
The speeches and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., are among the most powerful and persuasive work in history. One notable example is the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King’s skillful use of appeal to emotion, authority, and logic effectively put forward his ethnics and ideals. By adopting words as his weapons, he proves that language is often more effective than that of violence in bringing about positive change. He brilliantly explains the reasons for his nonviolent protest with…
his letter in response to the 8 white clergymen who were critiquing the mass protests he and the civil rights community was involved in while in Birmingham, Martin Luther King discussed how what was taking place in the United States, particularly in Birmingham, is unjust which is why people were protesting against. Also, that the church is not as great as it once was since its followers have not accepted African-Americans as equal, instead segregation was still taking place. Within his letter,…
In the novel, March, John Lewis illustrates how the desire to do better for oneself will always be met with resistance from others. Lewis portrays how the desire to do better for oneself will always be met with resistance from others through state-sanctioned police brutality against peaceful protesters. To illustrate this, Lewis recounts how Joe Rauh arranged for a series of testimonies on television, one of which included Fanny Lou Hamer’s. Hamer recollects how she was arrested after attending…
racial laws within South Africa and India. From March to April, Gandhi led thousands of Indians to protest the British monopoly on salt. Nearly 60,000 people protesting were arrested, including Gandhi. This is a sensational image of what civil disobedience is, as Gandhi had a vision, took the initiative upon himself for change and opportunity, and centralized a group of Indians for one common goal. 17 years later in 1947, India was granted independence from British rule. One man was able to…
The letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. titled Letter from Birmingham Jail, is written to put forth a message. Throughout the letter written, King is diving into the concern surrounding just and unjust issues towards the African American community in Birmingham. This argument is addressed when Martin Luther King, Jr. states "One may well ask, 'How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?' The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws,…
The intended audience of “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is the clergyman and a bigger group of people. At the beginning of the letter, Dr. King stated that “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” and “ I came across your recent statement calling my present activities unwise and untimely.” Dr. King’s letter is intended for the Birmingham clergymen who published an open letter criticizing his actions and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Yet, his letter becomes clear that Dr. King intends this…
Analysis of Letter From a Birmingham Jail In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was asked to go to Birmingham to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program and was arrested as a result of this protest. A letter from several clergymen arrived to him during his incarceration criticizing his work as untimely and unwise. Martin Luther King responded to their critique in a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and explained the necessity of his presence. He explains that his actions were thoroughly planned out.…
Throughout his speech, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. uses an arsenal of rhetorical devices when trying to persuade his audience at Riverside Church in Harlem of the injustices of the Vietnam war. The most convincing of these devices were his knowledge of ethics, emotion, imagery, and rhetorical questions to convince the congregation to speak up and break the silence about the war in Vietnam. Reverend King begins by planting a seed of confidence and trust in the congregation. He does this by…