In these two articles, “Ain’t I a Woman” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” they both are about fighting for civil right and social change due to the unequal treatment of people based on gender and race. It is very common in the past American society since the racial discrimination and gender inequality have a huge impact on millions of people lives for more than two hundred years. Even though those people who suffered from racial and gender prejudice have fought for ending the discrimination and inequality many times throughout American history, it is not easy and smooth. In fact, fighting for social change must have good leaders to speak out for sufferers and to inspire others to stop discrimination as well as those leaders are willing to …show more content…
She showed that she is a good leader by addressing a powerful speech with strong emotion to grab her audience’s attention. She motivated other people to fight for the women’s right by saying that she is a woman, and she can do anything a man can do which implies that there is no different between female and male (Truth 2); therefore she suggested women should have the equal right compared to …show more content…
4). He devoted his time to serve as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to help ending the unequal treatment of people based on race. In the article, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King pointed out that he was in Birmingham, Alabama because here is the place filled with injustice and racial discrimination. He devoted himself to helping black people and others who suffered from unequal treatment to cease racial inequality by nonviolent action, but as time flies by, the result was disappointed, and the progress was very slow. He then encouraged his fellow to take the next action, direct action, since King though that “Nonviolent tension is necessary for growth,” (para. 10) and he was ready to take account for outcome he had
Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at it’s peak in the South. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In response to King’s peaceful protesting, the white community viewed “[his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist,” and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive.
In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr refutes Eight Clergymen from Alabama’s article which condemned the nonviolent protests led by “outsiders” against the racial injustice directed towards African American’s in Birmingham and all of America. King supports his argument by utilizing historical, religious, and statistical facts to build a common ground with the clergymen and to elucidate that nonviolent protests are the only way African Americans can protest inequality, as well as using anecdotes of personal experiences he and other African American’s had to face in order to elicit sympathy and regret. King’s purpose is to persuade the white clergymen that he isn’t breaking the law and that he isn’t an
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing civil rights leader. In 1963, Dr. King and some other civil rights actives went down to Birmingham, Alabama to help in the fight to end inequality. During a nonviolent demonstration Dr. King and countless other protestors were arrested and sent to a Birmingham jail. While in prison Dr. King had time to think and he took this time to write to his fellow clergymen who critics the nonviolent demonstrations. The letter is entitle "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".
Raeanna R. Essig Prof. Craig Case ENG 124.01 21 February 2017 Actions of Nonviolence Throughout the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King makes numerous profound statements that transcend through the ages. King wrote this famous letter while imprisoned for being involved in various nonviolent campaigns. King, not harboring any fear of retribution for his bold statements, uses a simple letter address the sensitive issues of segregation and racism directly. King writes a highly adequate and powerful response to the circumstances prompting the letter, while also teaching lessons on the correct way to fight for equality. When Martin and his follower’s direct nonviolent methods are being questioned by the fellow clergy members,
In contrast, in the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King petitions for society and the government to change through more peaceful means. King and his follower’s push for change through nonviolent direct action such as sit-ins, marches, and boycotts. He claims, “nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” (King 48). King wants to create tension and stress within the community so that the white man can no longer ignore the issue. He believes this this tension will lead to negotiations and change to end the segregation that he is
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.) was a native to Atlanta Georgia, was a minister in the Baptist church and was one of the lead men and women in the civil rights movement in the United States, from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s. He is popular for the “I Have A Dream” speech, the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” King is appealing to his fellow clergymen to call injustice for what it is, to stop facilitating segregation and tend to their brothers’ needs and to stop playing hypocrite about the matter at hand: racial prejudice and segregation. The letter brings into view man’s fickleness and his need to be protected to avoid vulnerability. King pens this letter sitting in an Alabama jail in 1963, in response to the remarks his fellow clergymen have made about his recent activities being “unwise and untimely” (254).
King was disappointed in the biased and distorted views of his fellow religious colleagues and the fact that they showed no concern for the brutality endured by the black community. The exigence of it is Dr. King felt the necessity to defend and justify his nonviolent actions and responded to their accusations and disapproval by writing a Letter from Birmingham Jail. In his letter King wrote about racial discrimination and the struggles and inequalities faced by the black community and he intended for it to encourage and promote desegregation and equality among all nations.
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. is responding to criticism of the peaceful protests and sit-in’s that were taking place in Birmingham, which led to his being arrested and the reason that he was in jail. He first responds to the accusation of being an “outsider” by setting the stage for his being in Birmingham due to being invited because of his ties to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights organization and due to the fact that he is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Next, Martin Luther King expands on his moral beliefs that there is “injustice” in the way that Birmingham is “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States”.
In his letter from Birmingham jail, written in August of 1963, King outlined the four steps, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action” (Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1). He knew injustices were evident from the accounts of abuse endured by African Americans. He tried to negotiate with the political leaders, but they refused so King had to move on to the last two steps. Self-purification was the hardest, but most important step of the process in starting a nonviolent campaign. It was a workshop, teaching supporters of the cause how to suffer abuse without retaliating.
Response to “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he responded to statements written in a Birmingham newspaper that criticized his actions in the city. He undermined these disapprovals by explaining his belief in nonviolent direct action. King also went on to give opinions on other topics, such as, the lack of support from white moderates and white churches. He used technique and structure to develop his ideas and justify his methods.
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail because of a peaceful protest, protesting treatments of blacks in Birmingham. Before the protest a court ordered that protests couldn’t be held in Birmingham. While being held in Birmingham, King wrote what came to be known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Not even King himself could predict how much of an impact this letter would have on the Civil Rights Movement. In the letter kind defended Kings beliefs on Nonviolent Protests, King also counters the accusations of him breaking laws by categorizing segregation laws into just and unjust laws. King uses this principle to help persuade others to join him in his acts of civil disobedience.
“Letter from Jail” On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight clergymen while he was incarcerated. Dr. King wrote this letter to address one of the biggest issues in Birmingham, Alabama and other areas within the United States. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discussed the great injustices that were happening during that time towards the black community. Dr. King wanted everyone to have the same equal rights as the white community, he also went into further details about the struggles that African Americans were going through for so many years, which he felt like it could change. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, expressed his beliefs and his actions about the Human Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights era was a time of great turmoil and injustice for African Americans, however, Martin Luther King brought forth a tremendous amount of change through his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream Speech”. Both documents demanded that the unjust treatment of African Americans had to change, as well heavily urged African Americans to remain peaceful and not resort to violence. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was an excellent example for demanding change since the primary message of King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was calling forth white moderates along with the church to no longer sit on the sidelines and allow the injustices on African Americans to continue any further. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” focused on discussing the morality of the unjust laws created, and differentiates between man-made law and moral law. This was specifically done to show white moderates that civil disobedience was not entirely a negative thing.
Path to racial harmony Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to Birmingham jail because of nonviolent protesting against segregation without a permit in Birmingham. During that time the civil rights movement was going on where African Americans were being segregated because of the whites. They were not treated equally. During 1963, in jail, Dr. King wrote a letter in response to the clergymen in order to defend himself from the accusations that were made against him by the clergymen. He described in his letter that the demonstrations that were taking place in Birmingham were not in his hands because of the white power that had them being left with no other choice.
King lectured in all parts of the country and discussed race-related issues with religious and civil rights leaders at home and around the country. King became increasingly convinced that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and the fight for equality. In Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963 King’s campaign to end segregation at lunch counters and in hiring practices drew nationwide attention when police turned their dogs and fire hoses on the demonstrators and protesters. King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, including hundreds of schoolchildren and hard working citizens. Although behind bars king refused to be silenced, while he was in the Birmingham jail he wrote a letter of eloquence in which spoke his reasoning of nonviolence: