Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail Essay

Introduction: Martin Luther King, employ rhetorical appeals to convince the Clergymen and Birmingham City about the brutal treatment the African Americans were facing during the Civil Rights Movement were unjust.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King’s wrote this letter for eight white clergymen who unapproved of his nonviolent protests for racial equality and segregation. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. King been arrested and is writing to the clergymen about why he felt the need to be protesting also reasons why the clergymen should care. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses persuasion to show that the clergymen and the church should be ashamed of themselves for discontinuing his nonviolent protest. Throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. remains calm, although he is in jail for leading nonviolent protest for equality and ending segregation. King believes that if

The author, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote this letter in an effort to stifle the plight of injustice that has taken over the city of Birmingham. Also, King wrote this letter "in response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South" (King). These men, called the Birmingham clergymen, published an open letter criticizing the actions of Dr. King and the SCLC. Also, King is talking to the people who represent the power class and dominant group, but shows that they support the foundations of justice. As the letter progresses, King makes it clear that the audience is a much larger group, particularly white and Christian. Throughout the letter, King plays toward Christian morality by continually asking whether "just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God" (King) ? and ends the essay by asking God to forgive him if he has offended anyone. By continually showing his faith in God, King strategically tries to connect with the so called "Christians" that the Birmingham clergymen claim themselves as. To achieve this, King structured and

In conclusion, Martin Luther King used various words and phrases within his concluding paragraphs in order to pull the emotions of the audience to sympathize his states. Also to understand the sacrifices that he has made towards the civil right. The repetition of "I" and brotherhood in order to connect with the reader and himself. Martin Luther King's purpose in writing the "letter from Birmingham Jail" was to explain and also, refute the clergymen's accusations and claims in their written statement. a lot of contradictory terms and words to show that he's not on anyone is side and sees things both ways. Martin Luther King used a lot of religion words such as pray, prayers, God, Christian, in order to pull towards the readers emotions with

Dr. King then switches gears, noting that the clergymen are anxious over the black man’s “willingness to break laws.” He admits that his intention seems paradoxical, since he expects whites to follow laws that protect equality, while breaking others.

King then differentiates between just laws and unjust laws. By quoting St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, he states that unjust laws are not considered laws.

King uses logos to expertly define just and unjust laws, he does so multiple time offering several explanations and examples. A just law, he points out, can be unjustly applied as well. King states that an unjust law is one that is enforced on a minority group and not the majority, one that the minority group had no ability to vote for or against, and a law that promotes segregation in it application. King insists that an individual has both a right and a responsibility to break unjust laws. King clarifies the distinction he is trying to make and reassures readers that he is not calling for people to defy the law. King explains how nonviolently protesting a law while accepting the penalty openly is actually expressing a high respect for the law while advocating for change. King backs up his distinction of just and unjust laws when he notes that the laws in Nazi Germany allowed for Jewish persecution, and he would have broken those laws to support the oppressed class had he lived

One of the most skillfully written compositions was done in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was heading a national political movement for the recognizable equal treatment of colored people wrote a letter to his fellow clergy men while being imprisoned. In one article, he was able to address not only the clergy, but a wide, diverse audience, send his message across thoroughly, and affect millions of lives because of his purpose and the different personas he assumed. Dr. King's letter was a success because of his ability to incorporate and involve everyone in his writing.

The core issues discussed in the letter involve the then existing racial discrimination in the United States. This was indicated by many issues. For instance, his arrest was racially inclined. He was trying to fight for the rights of the ‘negroes” as they were referred during that time. Besides, King was taken to Birmingham jail in the center possibly the most neglected part of the country in the United States (King, 2012:179). He was defending the harassment by authorities on people who were rightfully demonstrating about their rights.

At the beginning of the letter, (from paragraph 1 to paragraph 3) King successfully reverts his passive position as prisoner to a busy leader minister, who had little time to respond to criticism. In the first paragraph, he kept his polite tone, and made the statement in such a way that he was not forced to answer but willing to reply because he respected those clergymen's good will and sincere. Then, in the following paragraphs, he answers the question:" Why is Martin Luther King is here in Birmingham?" In this section, the words "more basically", "moreover" show a logical organization. He mentions his president position in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to indicate his responsibility of the situation of Birmingham. Here, he emphasizes the invitation and organization ties to imply that he should be respected as a guest. In the coming paragraph, he compared himself as a minister with those Christian saints in the history to gain trust and more respect. Then he focuses on the duty of a human being and an American citizen, who should show more concern to those injustices no matter where they are. Here, he refutes the clergymen's statement about "outsiders coming in" by saying:" Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside agitator' idea"(King 404). By the end of the first section of the letter, King has perfectly got the trust and respect he deserved as a man, a minister, a civil rights leader, even a prisoner. We can see

When talking about two major civil rights leaders like James Baldwin and Martin Luther King and what they talked about in both of there readings Letter From A Region Of my Mind, and also in King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail you have to really pay close attention to the context to see what they are talking about. Martin Luther King Jr and James Baldwin grew up in a world that is different and that has changed a lot from our time today, where race and color matters a lot more than it does now so both of them had moments in there life where they were not treated fairly because of their skin color so I believe this is what played a big part in them writing about black identity because they wanted to know why there weren't treated fairly because

One of the interesting Documents in World History is the ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ by Martin Luther King Jr who was born as Michael King in 1929 in Atlanta. His parents were part of the baptism ministries, and they lived in an area that was mostly occupied by the middle-class blacks. Due to his background, he was mostly in involved in church activities and his father told him that the church was a way of offsetting the inequality that existed between them and the white people. He studied at Morehouse College where he took law instead of theology which he later realized were intertwined. He used his law understanding while preaching. He always wanted to see the black people liberated and therefore joined the SCLC. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr was arrested for participating in civil rights demonstrations in Alabama. The demonstrations were as a result of many black men participating in the Second World War. They came back more enlightened on their rights. They now had a new belief that there were better opportunities for them as second class American citizens. The war made them more determined to improve the lives of their fellow black people. Martin

Historically, Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most well-known public figures in the black community during his time. King Jr. was living in Atlanta, Georgia and was serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state. King was part of many organizations across the south, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. When King Jr’s local affiliate of Birmingham invited him to the city he gladly consented. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for being an incredibly gifted and intelligent man and his letter from Birmingham jail perfectly reflected his this. Throughout his letter, King Jr. illustrates his feelings, thoughts,

Dr. Martin Luther King as we all know was a man of great knowledge, wisdom, and a man with a big heart who wanted to undo the injustice that was segregation. He led several peaceful protests and spoke to thousands of people about what our rights were and gave hope of freedom to African Americans in a time where African Americans didn’t feel that there was much hope. In his letter from Birmingham jail, Dr. King addresses several clergymen who wrote an open letter criticizing his actions and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during their protests in Birmingham. Throughout the letter he defends his right to protest in Birmingham and provides a moral reason for his presence. Throughout the letter he also showed his knowledge by making

By this statement King proved that in its application an unjust law can oppose a just law. Nevertheless, in this circumstance the just law is the First-Amendment right to peaceful assembly and protest and the unjust law prohibits one group of people from obtaining this right as a citizen of the United States of America. From this point King's appeal to reason carefully merges into an appeal to character.