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Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

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“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair” ( King, Martin Luther). King introduces this quote in order to display that African Americans have been put down for so long, that they are no longer inclined to undergo further discrimination. In August 1963, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written by Martin Luther King Jr in the occasion of segregation issues and the fact that he showed up to Birmingham. His letter addressed the eight white religious leaders of the South in response to a public statement of concern and caution that was issued by the leaders; King was trying to make a point about how …show more content…

King explains why blacks can no longer “wait” for an end to segregation in the South, he relates all the racial injustices to families so that the white leaders are forced to imagine what life would be like for their children, for their families. One such example includes the following quote, “…seek to explain to your daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park…and see tears well up in her little eyes…Funtown is closed to colored children…see her begin to distort her personality…when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos, ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”’ (26-32). Through the reference of children, King impels his readers to think about their own family members and how it would affect them if they were forced to live in the circumstances that colored people do. Additionally, the white leaders are pressured to realize the true nature of the society they live in and how atrocious the conditions are that black people are coerced to live by. As a result, the leaders might have more sympathy for colored people and bolster King’s fight to end segregation, because they would not want their own families to live in that kind of

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