Response Letter By Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was addressing some fellow clergy-man that were questioning his actions that landed him in the Birmingham jail. In this letter Dr. King expressed several values that were worth giving his life for. He, masterfully, supported these values using Scriptural and secular examples. I will discuss only two of the values: Righteous Justice and Peaceful Action.

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.

After Michael Brown was killed by Darren Wilson the tension blew up into a riot. The events received considerable attention in the U.S. and elsewhere, attracted protesters from outside the region, and generated a vigorous debate about the relationship between law enforcement and African Americans as well as created a national dialogue about police use of force doctrine in Missouri and nationwide. The court case that followed the shooting was led by Robert McCulloch in a highly unusual process. Instead of conducting an investigation and gathering information the prosecutor, Robert McCulloch left jurors to wade through mass amounts of information to determine the outcome. (Placeholder cite) His office left no recommendation as to whether or not Darren Wilson should be indicted or not. The unfair treatment discussed just is not in this one area there are hundreds of these communities being treated just as unfair as the Ferguson community. Those communities should band together and protest for a change so everybody in the United States can be treated equally. All of these issues matter and are very important. People in our country no matter what race, religion, or sexuality should be treated as equals. Everybody should protest together for a change, a change for everybody to have the same rights as the common white man. This is an issue everybody in our

In his letter, “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior uses a didactic tone to inform his audience, eight critical clergy members, that direct action and peaceful protests are the only solution to racial segregation-a moral dilemma. This letter comes after Martin Luther was apprehended by police and confined in a jail cell due to an “extreme” peaceful protest against racist ideals. The didactic tone utilized in the letter can be characterized by Luther’s diction, language, and imagery.

In a society where technology is used by almost everyone and the government has access to everything we see, are we really completely free? The constitution of the United States guarantees privacy and our individual will, but it has been proven that maybe that does not matter. The average citizen comes to the United States in an attempt to flee from oppression and get freedom, but this is where the definition of freedom can be contradicted. When the elements such as government control and peer pressure are more than abundant in our society, what freedom are we even getting? The individual is not free inside society; he is trapped.

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.

Michael Brown was an unarmed black man while Darren Wilson is a white police officer. Cases where police officers shoot citizens has happened before, yet this case has drawn attention from the world because the officer is white, and the victim is a black man. Brown’s supporters believe that Wilson shot Brown because he is black, but police have different stories about the shooting accident. People in Ferguson protests and demand the truth when there is not enough evidence to confirm which side is true. In the case of Michael Brown’s shooting accident, there was no racial discrimination in the case because Wilson was doing his job as a police officer and has not violated any of the laws.

It is a devastating tragedy that there were not enough evidence to bring the civil rights charges in the case. This killing of this young African American hit home for most parents and black male teens. He was shot by a men name George Zimmerman. This case was setting the national debate on race and guns law off the walls. Everyone was feed up. The Trayvon Martin case was talked about all over the world. In school, at home, everywhere because it was unbelievable that a grown man can get away with killing a young teen. Michael Brown, hands up, do not shoot. The Michael Brown case was a nationwide wake up call. He got killed by the police. He was unarmed and a black teenager. A white police officer named Officer Wilson. “Officer Wilson Fired 12 rounds (Nytimes.com 2015).” Mr. Wilson did not get indict. Everything was clearly caught on video. Tamir Rice was killed in Cleveland, Ohio Park. He was a 12 year old black young boy that got shot by the police officer. The police officer said that he, Tamir Rice the 12 year old, to be carrying a pistol on a swing set. “When officers arrived at the scene, they say Rice reached for his toy, he did not point it at them, prompting a policemen to fire shots at Rice from a short distance (Strochlic, Nina).” Tamir Rice only was playing with a bb gun. VonDerrit Myers Jr., yet, another African American that was shot in the head not so far from where Michael Brown died. The 18 year old, VonDerrit, was shot by an off duty police officer. “The officer fired at him 17 times (Strochlic, Nina).” Myers was unarmed and only holding a sandwich. A crowed gathered at the scene and a lot of violence broke out. Police vehicles were damaged and gunshots were being fired. Do this remind you of the riot in South Central? The officer the shot and killed VonDerrit Myers was a white men name Jason Flanery. Laquan McDonald, 17 year old black male and he was too shot and killed by a police officer in

Born in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his doctorate Ph.D. on systematic theology at Boston University, had previously earned a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College and a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary, at which he had been class president. Dr. King participated in non-violent demonstrations against segregation. These non-violent protests were the reason that Dr. King was imprisoned in the Birmingham, Alabama city jail. Many people both colored and otherwise would say that, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was undeserving of this punishment. Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is a response to a public statement of concern and caution from eight Southern Church ministers, about the peaceful gatherings. Dr. King lived an amazing life. At age 33 he, pressed the case of Civil Rights with President John F. Kennedy, at 34 his “I have a Dream” speech electrified the nation, at 35, Dr. King won the Noble Peace Prize, and at age 39 he was assassinated leaving behind

In Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King responds to the eight clergymen, who just so happened to all be Caucasian, that wrote to him disagreeing with his views and actions referring to the very much long awaited issue of equality amongst the people. The clergymen understood, or so they claimed in their letter, that the people of color were tired of their dreams of equality not being reached, but they called their nonviolent actions “unwise and untimely.” They would have much rather have had these issues debated whilst in front of a judge rather than the way they were handled on the streets stirring everybody up about the issue. King replies by saying that they tried to make the undeviating action at a time convenient

Throughout history speeches have reassured people that everything is fine, or that situations will improve. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used both emotional and logical appeals to raise awareness for the betterment of the lives of African Americans.

Over the last few year there have been many cases involving the death of a young African Americans being killed in ways that fellow black people would describe as vicious unreasonable manslaughter. The case involving Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was eighteen years old, and was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer. (Bucanan par. 1) After the trial, Wilson was set free as the jury saw him as innocent for his actions. Due to this, and other cases where white police officers were let go after fatally shooting a black man, riots began to arise in different cities. (Bucanan par. 5) The most note-able of these riots would be the Ferguson riots where stores were looted and destroyed and police militarization was required to help settle the protests. (BBC News) The whole reason of the occurrence of these riots is because the black community feels the injustice of law enforcement and that the police force abuse the power bestowed upon them behind the badge on their chest. More specifically there is the issue of racism among the men and some women in the police force. And this is what people of other ethnic background leads to believe is the reason behind the unnecessary manslaughter and police brutality on black people. Like all debates there are always two sides to perspective. For the black community, the main point of view is that policemen are being overly and unnecessarily brutal with their arrests. And men

The 1960’s was the peak of the nonviolent civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Junior. MLK Jr. traveled all along the South fighting against racial discrimination and equality between all races. MLK Jr uses sit ins, protests, demonstrations and marches to fight for his cause; he always stayed nonviolent even when there were police and white supremacists using violence against him. During one of his marches in Alabama, MLK Jr. was arrested, not for the first time. While in jail, MLK Jr. took the time to respond to a letter written to him by eight different religious leaders. Even though some people may argue that Martin Luther King Junior’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is not radical, his letter is radical because he refuses to conform to the world’s expectations and he expects the same from the religious leaders whom he is replying to.

Martin Luther King Jr is one of the most famous Civil Rights leader from the past century, he dedicated his life to achieve racial equality in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. He also penned the Letter from Birmingham City Jail, which outlined the moral basis for the civil rights movement and talked about some of the fundamental questions of political philosophy. Whether what he did in that put him in the Birmingham City Jail was just or unjust, and if it was morally okay to disobey. If next fall I was invited back to Political Science 105 to give a guest lecture on this topic, I would first start off by giving the students background information on Martin Luther King life and what he has done and achieved until to the point where he writes Letter from the Birmingham City Jail.

It has been nearly two and a half years since the day that caused much tension in Ferguson Missouri. It was August 9th 2014, when a set of events unfolded which lead to the death of 18 year old, Michael Brown. The debate that sparked tension within this community started by witnesses claiming that Brown was killed while he was surrendering. However, other witness reports claim that Michael was being aggressive towards officer Wilson, which resulted in Brown’s death. After looking through the evidence, it is clear that officer Wilson should not have been indicted. This can be seen through the evidence of witnesses who were there when everything occurred, and the autopsy that shows Brown’s bullet wounds.