In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his views on unfair laws, which brings a strong moral qualm. He argues that while people have a moral need to rebel against unjust laws, they similarly have a legal obligation to respect just laws. According to King, unjust laws are those that decrease human dignity and create a sense of shame, like segregation laws. King's ability to discern between a just and injust law and understand how the laws are applied makes his case more compelling. He recognizes that certain laws could seem fair on the surface but end up being unfair in practice. He uses being charged with marching without a permit as an example. However, this rule becomes unfair when it is selectively applied
It is impossible to combat injustice by appeasing those who are injust. Martin Luther King is a famous civil right activist who put his life on the line to stop the unjust treatment of African-Americans in the United States. King’s efforts combined with other civil rights activist’s allowed African Americans to gain many rights that they previously did not have. The civil rights movement made use of protests and boycotts to force change. Martin Luther King was arrested for prostesting and was placed in Birmingham jail from which he wrote a famous letter explaining his rationale for his actions.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was born in Georgia in 1929. His father and grandfather were both Baptist pastors. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was in Alabama where he was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, when, Ms. Rosa Parks, secretary of local branch of NAACP had refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus.
In his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Junior essentially states that “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than misunderstanding from people of ill will.” This quote by Dr. King is extremely true, and relative to anyone. His quote’s understanding is hard for anyone to see on the surface, but after taking a while to realize its meaning, it makes sense why the quote is considered famous. Understanding the quote begins with breaking down the entire sentence. “Shallow understanding…” represents the basic knowledge, or foundation that people teach to one another.
Dr. King was a strong voice for the Negroes and a champion who led them to fight against the unjust laws of segregation. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was used as a way to ask for support from the church leaders, defend himself against the criticism the church leaders had made of him, to admonish the churches to take a stand just as Christians had done in the past and to point out his reasons for not only standing with the Negro community to fight the good fight but committing to lead the people in their fight. He took his role as if called by God just as much as he was called to be a minister. In conclusion, King was right to go to the church leaders for help. If those leaders had stood with King instead of letting their
King later writes, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (4). He is justified and had every right to protest in the city of Birmingham, for civil liberties and justice. Challenged by the opposing, white population, comfortable in their segregated establishments and ideologies. King utilizes logos to help his audience understand the urgency of the Civil Rights movement and directly address the criticisms against his presence in Birmingham. “Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.
Whether it was between the various bombings of African American households, offensive and racist segregational legislation, or the prevalent consistency of discrimination against colored people throughout the entire history of the United States, certain individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. assured their energy would be spent battling against the racial discrimination during the 1960s. Consequently, King’s efforts to non-violently protest still led to his imprisonment in Birmingham City on charges that had violated Alabama’s legislation against mass public demonstrations. While imprisoned at the Birmingham City Jail, King utilized any sort of material to compose his own literary wrath in response to white-clergymen who had previously criticized
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and an excerpt from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the authors carry contrasting religious views that result in differing approaches to their mutual dissatisfaction with the lack of a more perfect and just society in their relative modern America. Both Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King write in support of a Utopian motive for attempted societal perfection and they each have agreeing and varying perspectives on the topic. King, being a man of faith, turned to true Christianity as a guiding source of the way individuals should live in a moral fashion even if they are not of the faith. King also references the dream of freedom that the founding fathers
On Wednesday, September 28th, I led a seminar analyzing two pieces of work from the Liberal Studies Reader for LIBS 7001. The first, To My Old Master, is a letter written from the point of view of an emancipated slave, Jourdon Anderson, in response to his old master from Big Spring, Tennessee asking Anderson to return to work for him. The second, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, written by Martin Luther King Jr., is a response to a letter from a group of Alabama clergymen, who critique King for being “unwise and untimely” (King, 1963) in his direct action approach protesting the racial segregation and discrimination that was prevalent in Birmingham. Kathy Dam, Romolo Ferrari, Mike Pendon, Alexey Skiba, and I focused our analysis and discussion
To ‘fight fire with fire’ is a phrase that insinuates that there is a method to stop oppression with more oppression, and violence with more violence. Although many prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties believed this to be true, Dr Martin Luther King Jr did not believe in the violence, and instead would lead a movement of peaceful protests throughout the southern United States. Despite this, he and the people who walked beside him were hosed down, beaten by police, and thrown into prison. Whilst locked away in Birmingham Jail in April 1963, Dr King Jr had nothing but time and an open letter from eight bitter clergymen of Birmingham, condemning the protests. In his response, Letter From Birmingham Jail, Dr Martin Luther
The remarkable “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written in 1963 by the activist of Civil Right Movement, Martin Luther King. It was a response to the criticism made to him by eight clergymen and at the same time a defense for the means which he and his followers had chosen to fight against racism. It has had a huge impact on the history of United States of America and still to this day, 54 years after it was written, society can absorb valuable lessons from it. Human rights are a serious issue, but even in modern times there exists a space for conflict due to the neglect of their importance, an event encountered in Albania. Though justice and injustice are abstract terms, it would be really meaningful for everyone to try to understand them
Martin Luther king Jr. was one of the most influential people during the Civil Rights era and was responsible for changing the lives of all African Americans in America. He was a leader of his time; on a mission to gain freedom from segregation and derivation of rights for all minorities in the south. As a Political Leader, Martin Luther King Jr. had many followers, but just the same, he also had criticizers. In his letter addressed to the Clergymen titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)”, Martin Luther King Jr. speaks as the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Council and answers to questions and concerns of his participation and demonstration of nonviolent actions against political wrong doings that resulted in the imprisonment of Martin Luther King Jr. and several other protestors. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the need to address the concerns of his criticizers who thought that his actions were misguided and impetuous.
When reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and James M. Gustafson “The Moral Conditions Necessary for Human Community”, there are similar themes present. Both authors discuss the issue of how individuals are treated within a community, Also, the way in which individuals should be treated for a community to function morally and just. Dr. King Jr. writes about the treatment of African-American in Birmingham, Alabama. While Gustafson writes about the moral conditions necessary for any human to live in a community. To articulate his points, Gustafson uses the “Christian Virtues”: Faith, hope, and love.
In his lifetime, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. created two impactful pieces of literature that drastically affected the United States’ movement to change. He used logic and emotion to encourage civil rights activists to act in his two works: “I have a Dream” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Both emotions were used in each text but in different ways. In his “I have a Dream” speech he mainly focuses on emotionally persuading the audience, on the other hand, in the “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” he mainly focuses on logically convincing the readers.
On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was confined in Birmingham city jail. During his confinement, he wrote a set of letters to his fellow clergymen to address the injustice that was brought upon the city of Birmingham and throughout the United States. In King’s letters, he states to the clergymen “I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here” (King 1). In his letters, King also responds to the criticism the clergymen made in which they stated that King’s actions must be condemned because they precipitate violence (5).
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement in Birmingham, Alabama. The purpose of the demonstration was to bring awareness and end to racial disparity in Birmingham. Later that night, King and his followers were detained by city authorities. While in custody, King wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” This letter voiced out his disappointment in the criticisms, and oppositions that the general public and clergy peers obtained.