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Martin Luther King Jr. 's Letter From Birmingham Jail

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During the time Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” April 16, 1963, while he was in the Birmingham City Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, the world King lived was different form today. A world where blacks and whites where segregated from everything around them. The people of color were treated unequally. The laws during the time was unjustified. The treatment towards the people of color were brutal and very different than the world today. When King wrote the letter, he was in the jail cell because he was arrested for participating in the nonviolent direct-action program march against segregation and he did not have a permit. In Kings letter, he was defending his nonviolent direct-action for segregation to the white clergymen and declaring that the law was unjustified for the people of color. In Kings letter, he uses words and analogies that make him seem like he is talking directly to the white clergy men and that he is talking to them as an equal, respecting the reader and not talking down to them, therefore making his letter seem more positive so the person who received and read his letter seem more interested and opened minded. He starts by explaining that he was not intruding but he was invited to the non-violent march against segregation. King was arrested for being an outsider of the City of Birmingham. He writes to the clergymen saying “since you have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders coming in”” (King, 1963). However,

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