Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

In Martin Luther King’s, Letter from the Birmingham Jail, King attempts to shed a different “light” on the assumptions of his “fellow clergymen” that he addresses in the letter from jail. King focuses on the key assumptions in the letter of the clergymen, addressing their point of view, and then stating his own relevant reasoning and examples and supporting it.

On April 12, 1963, King as well as various groups of nonviolent protesters were arrested in Birmingham because they were protesting racism and racial segregation. They were arrested under a newly created law for demonstrating (Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle). Shortly after their arrest, and open letter, Call for Unity, written by 8 Alabama clergymen, was published

He gives his own reasoning, by stating that, with the waiting, comes nothing and to gain what is rightfully owed, it must be demanded. To appeal to the emotions of the clergy King goes on to give vivid examples and personal accounts of the black community oppression. He uses these accounts to demonstrate the “legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” King asserts his own assumptions by stating that “I had also hpe that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to struggle for freedom.” In this attempt to appeal to these clergymen, he takes a quotation that was in a letter from a “white brother,” who stated, such an attitude stems from the tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time itself is neutral’ it can be used either destructively for constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.” King uses this quite to sway the view of the clergymen. He uses the first statement, first of all, to show that there is misconception that with waiting comes a solution; secondly, he appeals to the clergymen’s own beliefs and views of good and ill will. King appeals to the clergymen’s sense of what is good and right, and

King appeals to their emotions by describing the violence, not done by the protestors, but by the police. “I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen it’s dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negros . . . if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negros girls . . . .” By appealing to their emotions as religious leaders, King hopes to sway the leader’s thoughts from the violent police to an understanding of the nonviolent protestors and their hopes of equality. He stated to the clergy to appeal to their religious background, possibly in an attempt to make reference to Jesus and his persecution, “I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in midst of great