ipl-logo

Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

2447 Words10 Pages

Arianna Diep Carver 3:45 Political science Martin Luther King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" and Civil Rights in America Martin Luther King wrote this essay not to pick a fight but to explain as a responds the criticism he received. In the beginning of the essay he said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." This is what brought him to Birmingham so he could help the injustice of his race. He persuades his reader that his actions are just and that the law is unjust. He stood up for what he believed was moral and explained and provides facts of why he stands for his actions. He does not defend himself but defends his belief. He fought for the social injustice and tied this event to the Civil Rights Acts of 1968. Doctor Martin …show more content…

"Why direct action why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" He replies "justice too long delayed is justice denied." He uses the little girl and fun land to express the emotions of parents telling their children they do not allow colored people to enter. He also uses his extent knowledge to mention that they have waited 340 years for their constitution and god given right. And how his people are addressed outside in the streets as "nigger". He explained equality by connecting it to all humans no matter what the race and a universal justice. He uses powerful men from the past to help convince the reader of the injustice that is brought upon them through segregation. Men that are well respected followed throughout history. "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it; he is obligated to do so.” - Thomas Jefferson. "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law" - St. Thomas Aquinas. "This nation I cannot survive half slave and have free." - Abraham Lincoln. With all these quotes, Martin Luther persuaded his readers with men that were honored in history and respected by the people all over. Sayings that stayed more

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    312 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    726 Words  | 3 Pages

    Picture this. On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, protester against inequality, Martin Luther King Jr., was arrested for parading without a permit. It is now April 16, 1963 and he sits alone in a Birmingham City Jail cell with nothing but a pen, some paper, and a solemn look on his face. In scraggly, but intent words, he writes a letter. He was writing to the church clergymen, determined to make them change their ways.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    276 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for breaking an unjust law against political demonstrations and his constitutional right to contact a lawyer was denied. After jail, Dr. King wrote a speech to argue that he and his fellow demonstrations have a duty to fight for justice. In the letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King states that we are responsible for justice in the world. Justice isn’t about obeying the laws but having unjust laws will only harm and result in conflicts. Martin uses persuasive elements such as connotations that puts an appropriate tone to his speech and vivid language to show that he is speaking directly to those who accused him of being guilty.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    578 Words  | 3 Pages

    For instance, how humiliation continues because of signs reading “white” and “colored”, because men are given the name “nigger boy” no matter their age, and how women are never given the respect of having the title “Mrs.” Overall, King infers that he has no intention of disrespecting the law now cutting ties with white society, but that he only wishes to end the injustice of segregation which limits the freedom of the Negro

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    1050 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is considered as one of the most influential Civil Rights activists during the twentieth century in a period of prejudices and racism were still prevalent. King fought against discrimination of all people, but often found himself campaigning against the unfair treatment of African Americans during the mid-twentieth century. In 1963, King found himself in an Alabama jail in the city of Birmingham. He was arrested for being a part of a nonviolent demonstration without a permit. King had been protesting because of continuous unfair treatment of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    494 Words  | 2 Pages

    He speaks about the struggles of black men and women by talking about the plethora of horrors the black community faces everyday not just in Birmingham, but across the South. He brings up questions of morality by talking about lynchings of his black brothers and sisters and the moment when he has to explain to his daughter just why she can’t go to FunTown. He talks about seeing the “clouds of inferiority”, he sees forming in the minds of young children. He attempts to get the clergymen to understand his reasoning by bringing up the discrimination young black children face before they’re even a year

    Read More

  • Does Martin Luther King Jr Mean In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    585 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery had been abolished by the time Martin Luther King Jr. had grown up, but the aftermath was still being sorted out, with him leading the charge to fix the wrongs committed against African Americans. After a peaceful protest, he was sent to Birmingham Jail, where he would write a letter. He could’ve paused to answer criticisms but he didn’t, only wrote the letter to appeal to the masses whose rights were limited and lives were under constant bereavement. This letter would apply to these masses, and in turn, call upon their humanity, morals, and ethics. MLK went on to state the reasons he was in Birmingham at all.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    1036 Words  | 5 Pages

    Martin Luther King’s message “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” it rebuttals the empty statements made by the eight Alabama clergymen. In the clergymen’s letter, they try to show their support by mentioning how they know what is best for the citizens, and they are trying their hardest to resolve these problems. However, they fail to give evidence in saying that King’s methods were “untimely and unwise”, and they failed to prove their support against segregation. King wrote this letter during his serving time in jail, in response to the clergymen that said that his action were “unwise and untimely.” This letter raised national awareness to the Civil Rights Movements, it motioned the will power to gain proper rights after three hundred and forty

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of A Letter From Birmingham Jail

    709 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. In the letter, Dr. King uses ethos, diction, and allusions when defending nonviolent protest which makes his argument really strong. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. He uses ethos to build up credibility.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Martin Luther King Jr. writes in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in August 1963. Injustice engulfs Birmingham and King demands change and equality. Martin Luther King is the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement. He was one of the many figures to set-forth a domino effect in the fight for equality for African Americans. The purpose of his letter was to get the point across that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action instead of waiting for justice to be served.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    607 Words  | 3 Pages

    After reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” I was able to realise Dr. King’s stance on issues of peace, direct action, oppression and working class rights. In Dr. King’s letter he explicitly explains that peace can be a powerful weapon and should be a right. This is shown when Dr. King writes, “Such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest” (4). The topic of direct action is also mentioned when Dr. King states the most important aspects of campaigning. This is shown when he states, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps… determine whether injustice exist, negotiation, self purification,

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

    733 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was very well known for his rhetoric in his writings and speeches. In Dr. King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he is responding to local Clergymen in Alabama. More Specifically their accusations of Dr. King peaceful demonstrations being untimely, extremist, and him being an outsider to the local issues. This powerful letter is extremely well written and Dr. King makes his reasoning very clear. Dr. King covers all the clergymen’s concerns and aims to throughly explain why desegregation needed to happened now.

    Read More

  • Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

    957 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    751 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King responds to the clergymen’s critics of his actions by justifying why action is needed. King describes the long-awaited freedom and equality the black community has been waiting for. He discusses about time being neutral, and how it can be used constructively or destructively. King explains that action needs to be taken, and used constructively in order for things to change. Just like King, Terry Tempest Williams, in her own ways uses time constructively to take action for her family and the rest of the victims of the atomic bomb testings.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    907 Words  | 4 Pages

    In terms of legacies, Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone whose legacy has left an impact on a great many fields. The first to come to mind for most would be civil rights activism, as he was an instrumental figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. However, Martin Luther King Jr is an extremely influential figure in the field of oration and rhetoric. His Letter from Birmingham Jail is a work that he wrote while incarcerated in the Birmingham City Jail in response to criticism from Alabama clergymen. This letter is a prime example of King’s expertise in constructing persuasive rhetoric that appealed to the masses at large.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

Open Document