Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a powerful message to explain King’s journey through defeating racial injustice for equality. King’s letter can be broken down into the model of the toulmin approach. He uses strong claims to develop his reasons. He then strengthens it with providing concrete grounds. Then the warrant can be understood by the backing King offers. Continuing with the rebuttal the clergymen questions King with that King then refutes. Nonetheless King provides no qualifier because he has such a strong stance on defeating racial injustice. As “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is thoroughly analyzed the claim can be concluded to be that racism does not only affect one person but it also affects the entire race, …show more content…
The first claim King presents is broad but is narrowed to a specific location in where he is being detained. His grounds are the reasons why he was in Birmingham to begin with. King explains, “Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary.” King continues to further explain the horrid acts of racial injustice that occurred that did deem it essential for direct-action. He expresses, “There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any other city in the …show more content…
King backs this warrant by explaining the just and unjust laws that Negros are facing. Without justice racial equality will never be accomplished. King continues on by stating, “A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the low of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” King explains what an unjust law in further by expressing, “Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.” As a consequence without justice, the persons affected by unjust laws will never feel racial
According to “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., he wrote a letter to respond to white clergymen on explaining why he is taking such actions. In the year 1963, during Martin Luther King Jr’s imprisonment in Birmingham, Alabama, he wrote a transcendent letter to white clergymen who stated that they disagreed with his obnoxious protests for racial inequality. They also urged him to seize his illogical riots. Martin’s response towards those men was that he and his fellow advocates would continue to protest and riot to make sure that they get the justice that they deserve. The clergymen also claim that he is an outsider and that he is only in Birmingham to create problems.
Martin Luther King Junior was a prominent social activist during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1950s up until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. MLK played a major role in ending segregation in the South and other areas of the nation, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During his years as an activist, MLK was arrested numerous times and from one of these arrests, came the Letter from Birmingham Jail. In this letter, MLK Letter From Birmingham was addressed to several clergymen who criticised King’s actions during the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s protests in Birmingham. Dr. King starts the letter off by letting the clergymen know that he does
Letter from Birmingham Jail “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” Martin Luther King, Jr states. He admits that he feels forced to support and maintain freedom in Birmingham (prg. 4). Martin Luther King, Jr. holds that he is aware of the corruption occurring in communities and states. He cannot avoid worrying about the situation in Birmingham, King explains. The author claims, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (par. 5).
Practicing civil disobedience by marching through Birmingham is why Dr. King was arrested. He made clear that this was not only a black problem, but one for the human race. In response to the criticisms of southern clergymen, King wrote a letter justifying his actions by integrating the following themes: civil disobedience, religion, and race.
In April 1963 Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for organizing demonstrations against unjust segregation laws. While in jail, he read a letter written by eight clergymen who denounced his demonstrations. King answered the clergymen in a letter now known as "Letters from Birmingham Jail." A study of American history reveals that King was justified in leading demonstrations against unjust segregation (Jim Crow) laws. To begin, in April 12, 1966 several Alabama Clergymen wrote an open letter to Martin Luther King criticizing his actions during his demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama.
He adds personal experiences of seeing vicious mob lynches of family members, and policemen with dogs are willing to join in on the killings his sisters and brothers. The inhumane treatment of the colored in Birmingham shows they are being dehumanized and are below police dogs. King makes this point let his reader know of the inhumane treatment again effecting his reader’s emotions. This leaves his audience having a guilty conscience in a way manipulating his reader to feel like it is their fault that these events happened because they have not taken action to prevent racism. He used this tactic of manipulation years later in another of his speeches at Santa Rita.
When Martin Luther King says, “I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust … is in reality expressing the highest respect for law” (96). Martin Luther King’s use of referring to the nature of law helps in further proving his argument that African Americans cannot wait anymore to fight the segregation they are being faced with. These people need to realize that it is evidently the truth and that they are being and isn’t going to dismantle without those being deprived and discriminated against realizing that the laws are changed for them because they are seen as inferior. The fact that an African American individual is willing to break a law from their “conscious” and face the punishment of going to jail illuminates their “highest respect” for the want of equality. If the African American were to simply say that the law is unjust but not take advocacy toward it then there wouldn’t be a changed outcome.
Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter From Birmingham Jail” to discuss the many issues and privilege that most African American are facing due to hateful violence. He gives the audience a lot of information of the disgusting violence that African American men and women go through all around the United States. Many issues like violence has been a big topic issue that Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. has talked about in his Letter from Birmingham jail and the injustice non racial human beings go through in the country of Birmingham. Violence has been around for as long as a person can remember. Violence has impacted the lives of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. and the African Americans in the city of Birmingham.
King also mention that he came to Birmingham, because there was injustice in Birmingham. Unjust in my mind is when something isn’t agreed upon or isn’t peaceful. In the world of today somethings are injustice the killings of whites and blacks there’s peace, but no peace. When i say that black people have their freedom, but are we safe think about the Charleston murder where nine innocent people died in church or the demanding and physical act of a police man when they pull a white man over versus a black man. As Dr. King stated individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as, rein hold Niebuhr has reminded us, group tend to be more immoral then individuals.
We live in a world with currently many conflicts from the racial disparity in high incarceration rates to gun violence and the war over gun rights. In his letter, King describes that Black Americans have no identity and that the oppressed cannot remain oppressed forever. King implies that they cannot be told to “wait for justice” because if they simply
You can’t break an unjust law and not make it known to everyone, you want people to know that you think it is unjust. King describes this as “difference made legal.” An unjust law is one which the majority makes a law in which minority has no say. Also, when that law is made it is expected of the minority to follow it but the majority does not abide by the same standards in obeying it. King uses the example of African Americans being
He points out is due to the fact that there’s injustice in the city of Birmingham that he is there. “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation” (king, 1963, p.1, para.3).
King backs this up stating, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." ” This statement shows that something being legal or illegal doesn’t make it right or wrong. This can be applied to present day, in the news recently Gay marriage has been a huge debate, and due to a Supreme Court Decision gay marriage is now legal. According to King’s definition of just and unjust laws Gay Marriage would be a unjust law because it isn’t morally right, or follow the law of God.
When responding to the eight white clergymen, he states, “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas,” giving the reader the notion that a plethora of criticism must come across his desk. But, he has chosen to write a response and explain himself simply because King feels they are “men of genuine good will” and their criticism is “sincerely set forth.” After the introduction of his letter, he feels he must next explain his location at the time: Birmingham Jail. “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here,” says King. This quote lets the reader know there is a reason behind King’s arrest, a very good reason, too.
He places the strong authority of the declaration on his side to show how the American people are in contradiction to their own “sacred obligation” and the Negros have gotten a “bad check.” A metaphor representing the unfulfilled promise of human rights for the African Americans. King skillfully evokes an emotional response from all races with the use of religion: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” By doing this he finds a common ground that brings black and whites closer with a common belief in God they share, as well as the mention of