Letter From Birmingham Jail Analysis

His letter built up a defense that was well thought out, respectful, peaceful, and nearly impossible for the Clergymen to disagree with. Considering the recent chaos of widespread racial hate crime in the United States, King’s words of wisdom from this piece could come in handy today. Currently, King’s call for peaceful intervention for racial equality is being forgotten and drowned out by violence and mayhem; but if only all could look back on his words and use them to view society today, maybe they could spread equality like King did. King’s message to the Alabama clergymen still stands true today: justice for all cannot be held until all strongly support each

King continues to say that some of the preachers of God have understood the need for justice, but some have suppressed the blacks themselves. He believes that the preachers have to break the traditional, unjustified rules of the society to allow for the freedom of the children of God. The true meaning of the Bible lies in justice and co-existence. He wants moral justice to overcome the traditional norms which were unjust in nature. He conveys this message well in his letter. He further writes: “One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage” (King 6).

King begs for a civil and peaceful resolution to the unjust laws and unfair treatment of African Americans. But, as history shows, the clergymen were not going to have anything to do with that. King says that he is trying to do this in the best way possible but it will not seem that way, “In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law… One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”(par. 12)

Considering King’s goal of arguing the urgency of segregation laws in this excerpt of his letter, deals on a matter relative to everyone in America at the time, and maybe even relevant in some of today’s society, King has to find a certain balance of appeal to each member of society. Even though his letter is directed towards clergymen, he is using this to point out the cruel hearts and the

In Dr. King’s narrative “Kings Letter from A Birmingham Jail”, he focuses on the argument of the clergy in terms of their word choice, accusations, misunderstandings; and contradicts them using data, facts, pathos, ethos of Christian authorities, and the words of scholars to secure his argument against racial injustice. A powerful example of these tools is exemplified on page 9-10 of King’s letter which directly questions the word of the Church and further gives comparison as to why

During Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for equal rights, the harassment, beating and killing of African Americans happened on a daily basis. Most members of the white community saw the inequality and brutality, but few from the Church stepped between the African Americans and the bigoted white mob who viewed themselves as higher beings. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, King expresses his disappointment in the Christian Church for sitting by and even condemning the plight of the African Americans, but taking little to no action when they had the ability to invoke a change in society. If the Church had cast aside its divisions between black and white, then it could have been a major catalyst for change that reinvented America’s society.

King played a key role in the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. King faced a lot of obstacles in that time but one of the obstacles King faced during his long fight with the Civil Rights movement was him and hundreds of other protestors were arrested. During his time in jail King wrote a letter that became known as “The Letter From Birmingham Jail.” In the letter King talks about the injustice, racism and unjust law systems in Birmingham. Also in his letter King criticizes certain groups in Birmingham for not helping the matter. In this paper I am going to show how Kings use of pathos and logos in his argument helps bring a stop to injustice and unjust law systems. Also I am going to show how he uses pathos and logos when talking about the church.

Its important to note that this letter was written after King and many other African American protesters were arrested for their protests in Birmingham, Alabama. So essentially King wrote this letter while in jail. What led to writing this essay was the arrest and Kings frustration from the arrest, where he is responding to the Clergymen that confined him in the jail. King is validating his protest activities that were deemed unwise and untimely by the Clergymen. King took this time to express his thoughts and he did so in a very professional and composed manner. King wrote this essay because its what needed to be said. All the suffering, all the hurt that African Americans were going through wasn’t enough to justify his protests. The clergymen didn’t see any wrong in society, any wrong in the lynching and any wrong in the discrimination that the black community was going through, King still had a point to

King Rebuts the accusations against him and his following of being out of control “extremists” because there cries for equality caused unrest with that were content with the imbalance of power and the old way things were. This rebuttal comes in the form of allusions such as: “Was Amos not an “extremist” for justice, or Paul and “extremist” for the bible? Weren’t Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson both “extremists” for freedom, justice, and equality?” He even goes on to point out that Jesus himself was crucified on Calvary’s hill for crimes of heresy and religious extremism. King proves with these illusions that “extremism” is just a form of perspective, and a tactic used by those who disprove of or disagree with a view in order to draw hate towards it. This is evident in the way that King and his followers are called “extremists” because their unwillingness to submit to inequality caused civil unrest in the

Expressing disappointment towards the church leaders, he states that they should do more, to help the minority stand on their two feet, and not feel discriminated against. This is because following the teachings of God, every human being is equal. Therefore, the church must help structure society closest to how The Bible shows. King fought for this same equality. However, being verbally reprimanded and going to jail for voicing his rights, he shows what happens when you go against the norm of society. The church is there to break those norms, and construct new ideals in accordance with the word of God.

His target audience was different though. King was writing to his peers defending his beliefs because he was being criticized not just for his ideas but also for his timing. He writes “Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program in such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise.

King believed that priests, ministers, and rabbis would be his strongest allies. However, some of them ended up being his opponents and many were more cautious than courageous and decided to remain silent behind their stained-glass windows. Churches should see the justice of human rights and equality and with deep moral concern serve to help solve these issues. While King was fighting to rid our country of economic and racial injustice, he found that many ministers believed that the gospel had nothing to do with those social issues (King 5). King considered the church to be a very powerful entity in our country, as it has been for centuries now. He believed that Christians were people who rejoiced when deemed worthy to suffer for something that they truly believed in.

King says,“We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’ It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.” Here he establishes a powerful example of an unjust law (how it was illegal to aid a Jewish person in Germany during Hitler’s rule), and how he would have reacted to it (giving aid to his “Jewish brothers”). This tosses the ball back into the clergymen’s court – implying that they should think about what they would have done. It is assumed that as good Christians, they would have given aid to any person in need. He draws a correlation to the atrocities committed against the Jews to the atrocities committed against African Americans in America – though on a much smaller scale, the situations can be considered similar, with unjust laws bringing about violence and deaths. King forces the clergymen to think about the morally correct course of action. Martin Luther King then justifies his fight for an “extremist” cause by providing specific examples of other historical “extremist” causes that actually brought about changes for the better. He says, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love… was not Amos an extremist for justice.. was not Paul an extremist for the

King’s prophetic ministry really takes a stand when he criticizes the white moderates and later on, the white church. King addresses the white moderates first in the nineteenth paragraph of his

In the year of 1963, Eight Alabama Clergymen wrote and sent a letter to MLK Jr, regarding their concerns and their views on his work. In fact, the Clergymen uttered “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely” (413). Then again, they were against everything that King supporting. With this in mind, when it came to Mr. King to answer; he established credentials that would make him important and his words worth listening to. Such as, in the beginning of his letter King mentioned that “I have the honor of serving as president of the southern Christian leadership Conference, an organization operating in very southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the south-one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights” (415).