What Is Mlk Thesis In Letter From Birmingham Jail

The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is the letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. to the clergymen of Birmingham, in which he speaks up against the nonviolence demonstration criticisms by white modernists. In it King suggests that Socrates is civilly disobedient, despite Socrates’ assertions of breaking the law in the Crito, the prison conversation between Socrates and his friend Crito days before his death. Socrates repeatedly states that it would be morally wrong for him to escape prison and go against the laws, however, King believes that he is civilly disobedient. I, too, believe that Socrates was in some form rebellious to the law, and that he was misunderstood and rejected by society. The Apology and Crito are two dialogues that discuss the intent of Socrates’ “crimes;” and the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” goes along the reasoning behind King’s claim against Socrates.

In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. informs the readers of the reasons how and why he is giving a nonviolent protest to racism. King begins the letter stating how he was invited to Birmingham and how he is trying to fight against the “injustice.” In his letter King continues on to explain that the black men have waited to long for justice and they are still fighting it in the present today through the unjust laws. The white churches were brought up negatively through the letter numerous times especially since the letter was specifically written to the clergy members. Dr. King ends his letter in personal hope that the clergy men will see what is wrong in the overall picture of injustice in Birmingham and

These three elements to Martin Luther King’s letter aid it to be the most effective argument against the Clergymen’s rash and

Martin Luther King started his letter right off placing himself on an equal playing field as the white clergy that was criticizing him when he wrote his salutation “My dear Fellow Clergymen” (King, 2017, p. 1). From those beginning words it is evident that Mr. King was using Rhetorical appeal of ethos, pathos and logos to establish ethical

Many barriers can evolve from people who grow up with no formal education, who only speaking their local dialect, and who have little exposure to people who are different from them. Ethnic people who can acquire a formal education, practice biculturalism, and code switch are able to be much more successful in life. It is a well-known fact that having a formal education has a major impact on a person’s earning potential and life success. Needing to understand and navigate cultures other than one’s own culture is another critical life skill. This is common thread of Dr. King, Fredrick Douglas, Amy Tan’s and myself.

Furthermore he demands a Christian morality throughout the letter, something that would perhaps be less helpful without the pretense of an address for the clergymen. Dr. king writes about how theres a moral law, a just law is in harmony with this and an unjust law is not. Example; “ we can never forget that everything hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did Hungary was “

Dr. King wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” when he was in jail for holding a desegregation protest in Birmingham, Alabama in April, 1963. As a leader of the civil-right movement, Dr. King found that it was an urgent need to take action in Birmingham where the worse segregation and racism brutality happened. However, Dr. King was criticized by eight clergymen that the protest was an extreme action. The letter was the response from Dr. King to their criticism. This essay will briefly summarizes what the letter was about, then discusses about the main arguments in the letter and why Dr. King’s fighting process was remarkably a great lesson to learn from.

In order to achieve true freedom society must find a peaceful solution. In the articles “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and “Speech at the March on Washington” by Josephine Bake. The overall message argues bout equality and the disadvantages of the black community. In order to achieve true freedom society must find a peaceful solution.

During the time Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” April 16, 1963, while he was in the Birmingham City Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, the world King lived was different form today. A world where blacks and whites where segregated from everything around them. The people of color were treated unequally. The laws during the time was unjustified. The treatment towards the people of color were brutal and very different than the world today. When King wrote the letter, he was in the jail cell because he was arrested for participating in the nonviolent direct-action program march against segregation and he did not have a permit. In Kings letter, he was defending his nonviolent direct-action for segregation to the white clergymen and declaring that the law was unjustified for the people of color.

He states “since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth… I think I should indicate why I am here” (p.3). With the clergymen as his intended audience, King represents himself as a respectful man as he begins his letter to gain respect with his intended audience. His tone then makes a noticeable shift to more serious and even indignant as he tries to explain how difficult it is to wait “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters” (p.5). While this shift expresses his impatience, his goal is to educate and not

In the Political essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. explains his reasoning behind coming to Alabama with members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Furthermore, he justifies taking direct action instead of negotiating with local authorities, confronting the subject of segregation immediately rather than waiting for a more convenient moment, and his belief that the state of mind of churches and the white majority hold distorted values. From a cell located inside of the Birmingham city jail, King justifies his presence in Birmingham by informing the clergymen of the city that he is there with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to aide the Alabama Movement of Human Rights. Invited by the Alabama

King opens the letter by explaining that he is replying to their criticisms, in that the protests are “unwise and untimely” (p. 120). King believes that the clergymen are sincere people of genuine good will, but are serving as God’s people in an unjust society. King later highlights the example of early Christians such as Apostle Paul, who preached far from home, and relates to his personal Christian duty in which he chose to travel to Birmingham to blacklist injustice. After all, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” according to King, so when it comes to fighting injustice, there is no such thing as an outsider in the U.S. (p. 121). King gives numerous examples of personal and political wrongs that have taken place while African-Americans had waited for racial equality. Under the hardship of such injustice, impatience is understandable. King responds to the clergymen’s concerns about the protestors’ violation of laws by deciphering between just and unjust laws within an unjust society. Just laws collaborate with moral law and should be obeyed. Unjust laws violate the commandments put forth by God, therefore must not be obeyed. King expresses his anguish in the lack of action from white moderates, as they feared disorder more than injustice and believe they had the right to tell African-Americans to wait for their freedom. King compares segregation to a boil that can’t be cured “as long as it is covered up” but that can be cured if it is “opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light” (p. 125). King’s final response is criticism of the clergymen’s applause of Birmingham law enforcement’s maintenance of order during the protests.

Martin Luther king letter from a Birmingham jail has been one of the most powerful text that I had ever come cross during my time in school. When I started reading it, I just couldn’t stop and contained my excitement of how much truth and power lies behind every word. It is very sad that this racial issue that happened so long ago is still happening among us. Is not a secret that racial discrimination still exists up to this date. What is crazy is that not only people are still being judged by their skin color but by their ethnicity, accent, and even by social class. As an aspiring social worker to be I do only hope that one day we can live in a society where there’s no prejudice and everyone is treated equally, but that day seems very far away. While I was reading Dr. King’s letter his main thesis to me was the fact that he was trying to protest peacefully and make amends with the clergyman. He was taken into jail where he had to explain himself writing this letter so that the clergyman will understand why he decided to take such actions since not even a peaceful protest was permitted back then. The worst part of it is that he was trying to make his point across to this man when he was doing nothing wrong just expressing his concerns as any other citizen. Dr. King was trying to make society understand that black people are human too who have values and deserve to be treated like every other person. As I kept on reading I had a personal self-reflection where I came across

King begins his letter to the clergymen of Birmingham by comparing his actions to that of biblical figures, seeking social justice. He appeals to the audience’s religious beliefs by paralleling the actions taken place. Stating “Just as the prophets of the eight century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” He furthermore clarifies that with a nonviolent social tension, the discrimination will be brought into full view of society. He demonstrates this by stating, “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind

Dr. King had access to a series of allusions from various religious and secular traditions, and he made full use of this knowledge in the "Letter." While each allusion serves a specific purpose in the context of the argument in which it is used, when taken together they emphasize two aspects of their argument. First, it is his argument that all people are interrelated, and are responsible for each other. Numerous traditions from which Dr. King snatches hints