Martin Luther King Junior's Involvement In Birmingham

In the 1960s African Americans were fighting the battle for their civil rights in the South. The city that enforced segregation the most in the South was Birmingham, Alabama. Negros encountered mobs of angry white men, the KKK, and police brutality (1-2). The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights needed more participants for their nonviolent direct action program (1). This is why Martin Luther King Junior was involved in Birmingham. King had organizational ties there, and wanted to end the racial injustice that was happening in the city (1). While in Birmingham, King was sent to the city jail for protesting without a permit. While in the jail facility, he wrote a letter responding to several clergymen’s statements on his nonviolent demonstrations

He uses examples to explain the differences between just and unjust laws (4). Also how everything that Adolf Hitler did was legal but immoral, just like what America was doing at the time (4). He uses religious, historical, and political examples to show the clergymen that he is just as educated as they are. His religious examples include Jesus who was an extremist for love, Paul the extremist for the word of God. It also includes Shadrach, Meshach, Abendigo who refused to obey Nebuchadnezzar’s immoral laws, Amos the extremist for justice, and Martin Luther who was another example of a religious extremist (6). His historical examples include Socrates who was punished for challenging people to think, and John Bunyan, who was a writer that published The Pilgrims Progress (6). His political examples include Abraham Lincoln who was an extremist for ending slavery, and Thomas Jefferson who was extremist for equality for all men (6). He also used direct quotes to emphasize his claims and to show how big his knowledge base is (9). He also uses the Jesus and religious examples because his audience is the clergymen who value the Bible and preach it for a living. This is one of the reasons of just how persuasive King can