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Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

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The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. He wrote this essay in jail after he was arrested for protesting at a lunch counter for segregation. The purpose of this essay was to respond to a statement made by eight clergy members that declared his actions in the fight for equal rights as “unwise and untimely”. In this essay Martin Luther King Jr. made sure that he remained calm and wrote down his response that would remind the men how wise and just he was. His word choice was one that expressed his thoughts and emotions in great detail and allowed the reader to experience the pain that he has felt for his entire life. Even though King’s words are wise and well put together that allow the reader to experience …show more content…

Throughout this topic Martin explained the right he and his followers had to disobey the laws set by the government. He started off by clarifying the fact that there are just and unjust laws. Just laws are laws that agree with moral laws or god’s law. These are laws that treats people equally and acts as a law that everyone should follow. Unjust laws are laws that go against or disagree with god’s law. After defining this clear difference between laws, Martin then went on to explain why the law they went against was right. Because the law set a segregation between the people, it created unfair treatment towards a certain set of the population making it an unjust law. Unjust laws are allowed to be disobeyed to show that you still support …show more content…

King believed that he was in the middle of those involved in this fight on segregation. He saw some Negros believed it was not worth the fight and simply adjusted to segregation, and the others were so fed up with the system that they developed a violent hatred to the whites. He was not an extremist because in fact he was the very middle of the situation with a view that they should attain equality, but do so in a nonviolent way. While explaining the difference between the true characteristics of extremist and whether or not that should be counted as a terrible trait, King added the point that it is not about whether or not we are extremist, but if we are extremist for hat or for

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