Effects Of Martin Luther King's Letter

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a peaceful protest march in Birmingham, Alabama. While he was incarcerated he wrote an open letter, using the salutation "My Dear Fellow Clergymen," explaining his beliefs and his mission. It is a powerful and moving essay that clarifies Dr. King's position. Even more, it was a call to action for all good people to join the cause of the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King Jr. 's 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail", a rhetorical masterpiece, was written in response to eight clergymen’s statements condemning his nonviolent direct actions. He defends the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights nonviolent, direct action against individuals, institutions, and laws that look the other way while unjust racial prejudice against African Americans runs rampant in Birmingham. Using three main appeals, Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Dr. King communicates the struggle that was the essence of human rights, equality. Appealing to the logic, ethics, and emotions of the reader strengthens his rebuttal of the opposition, helps him gain support, and clearly justify the recent direct action he led. King uses logos to illustrate his argument and invalidate the opposition to his claim, leading the reader to side with his position. Exampling this, he demonstrates that direct action is not opposed to negotiation, contrary to what his fellow clergyman believe, and states “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” (King par 9).

Every writer needs an inspiration to craft a brilliant literary piece. Whether this inspiration is tangible or intangible, it is still necessary. Some forms of inspiration come as passionate love while others appeal as injustice. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was a response to "A Call for Unity" by eight white clergymen. His inspiration for writing the letter was the clergymen's unjust proposals and the letter allowed him to present his rebuttal. Martin Luther King Jr. effectively crafted his counter argument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen, and then using logos, pathos, and ethos to refute his opponent's statements and present his own perspective.

One thing that has impact the world was martin luther king's speech.There is several reasons i think he had a huge impact on the world. He was the reason we get along with blacks. He's the one that didn't want to be mistreated because he's black.

In creating the best response to this letter I read this over multiple times and in doing so I could not ignore the potent reality of the social injustice issues in the United States, in particular, Birmingham, in the 1960s. Throughout this powerful letter, Dr. King respectfully addresses his conscious intentions in trying to acknowledge the situation. The purpose of my reflection paper is to analyze the content and recognize my initial reactions.

King belabors the point made on the struggles of colored people; he lists specific examples that highlight the overarching point of this paragraph. He establishes a candid, impassioned tone that allows the reader,

Martin Luther King Jr., is one of the most recognized, if not the greatest civil rights activist in this century. He has written papers and given speeches on the civil rights movement, but one piece stands out as one of his best writings. “Letter from Birmingham” was an intriguing letter written by King in jail in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. He was responding to a letter written by eight Alabama Clergyman that was published in a Birmingham Alabama newspaper in 1963 regarding the demonstrations that were occurring to stop segregation. The intended audience for this letter was of course the eight clergymen, but he also had a wider audience in mind because instead of

Martin Luther King Jr. discusses the advantages and purposes for his theory of nonviolent direct action in his Letter From Birmingham City Jail. He shows four basic steps that must be taken to achieve nonviolent action. They include 1) collection of facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2) negotiation; 3) self-purification; and 4) direct action. Each of these steps will be explained as part of King's argument later in this essay. The main purpose of a nonviolent campaign is to force any community to confront a problem rather than refuse to negotiate or face a specific issue. In the letter, King discusses his group's reasons for coming to Birmingham.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote as a response the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to the letter from eight white clergymen that wrote about an unjust proposition. The clergymen wrote about how the protests should stop, and the problem of civil rights should be attempted as a negotiation among the local leader or in the courts, yet they didn't specify when they were going to start. The clergymen were also stating that any black person that was an outsider should not be allowed lead or organize any protests. King's letter supports the strategies of nonviolent resistance to segregation, including explaining how people have a moral responsibility to break any unfair laws.

By the 1960s, the American Civil Rights movement was at its peak. Years of segregation and discrimination of African Americans led to several outbursts of disobedience. Martin Luther King Jr’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” delivered a critical response to Alabama clergymen’s letter and did so by accurately depicting the struggle of African Americans during 1950s-1970s, specifying the cruel segregation of the time and defending his methods of extremism and civil disobedience.

In the 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was arguably the most segregated city in the United States. African Americans living there were constantly berated by racist men and women, forced to never visit “white-only” areas, and were even threatened by members of the infamous Ku Klux Klan. To retaliate, African Americans decided to protest against the racial issues in a peaceful manner in order for African Americans to gain civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. was among these protesters, though he was soon arrested for his involvement. While in Birmingham Jail, King received information about a letter written by several Christian clergymen named “A Call for Unity”, which was a letter to the public, specifically to African Americans, to end the protests so that peace can be kept in Birmingham.

It is often believed that for people to feel a sense of worth in their life, there has to be a standard of unhappiness and suffering for them to compare their life to. Many would argue that for the majority to feel privileged, there has to be an underprivileged, unspoken for, minority. The marginalization of certain groups has occurred all throughout history with people being left to feel inferior and being left without access to equal rights. If it was not bad enough that this happens to people, the environment has been marginalized as well. This is where social justice movements and environmental activism come into play.

Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned and wrote a letter to the clergymen of the church. He writes this letter in response to his own followers making statements about their actions being “unwise and untimely”. He relates his situation to the apostle Paul in sharing the call for freedom. He goes onto say that Birmingham is one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Despite the nonviolent efforts that were made in order to reconcile these issues with the leaders of the city, no progress had been made.

“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” (3) In 1963 in this particular statement made by Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, he explained how man-made (white men) laws were created to persecute the black race, and how it is his duty to fight against such laws. He was the one who articulated the progressive hope of many African Americans along with other “colored” Americans to have civil rights. At that time, African Americans were battling against racial segregation and discrimination and they fought it continually and solely until they achieve the freedom they want. His main goal was to achieve justice and peace amongst “colored” people, including white Americans. The civil rights movement in 1964 has led to remarkable forward advances for individuals rights for African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Today in this country, individual rights are highly valued and this was because of the four racial groups who had fought and faced the different struggles for this movement. However, African Americans suffered more than the other groups in terms of political, social, and economic roles while making progress for the advancement of the civil rights movement.

The development of human being during the entire course of life, focus on biological and psychological growth (Berk, 2010). Human development hold several outcomes that are altered by both positive and negative influences. Genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) influences place significant impact on human development. In fact, Pinker (2004) submits that behavior is the result of a complex collaboration among inheritance and environmental factors in human development, ultimately supporting that nature-nurture work collectively (Pinker, 2004).