Letter From Birmingham Essay, Research Paper

& # 8220 ; Letter From Birmingham & # 8221 ;

Lina Sandoval

Birmingham 1963

Martin Luther King Jr. , is one of the most recognized, if non the greatest civil rights militant in this century. He has written documents and given addresss on the civil rights motion, but one piece stands out as one of his best Hagiographas. Letter from Birmingham was an challenging missive written by King in gaol in the metropolis of Birmingham, Alabama. He was reacting to a missive written by eight Alabama Clergyman that was published in a Birmingham Alabama newspaper in 1963 sing the presentations that were happening to halt segregation. The intended audience for this missive was of class the eight reverends, but he besides had a wider audience in head because alternatively of directing each single adult male a missive he had it published in the local newspaper.

In his missive, King starts by turn toing the reverend with My Dear Fellow Clergyman as if to set the work forces at easiness and maintain them open-minded. In the first paragraph King states that he does non normally react to such correspondence, but regards them by stating that since they are truly good work forces, so he would react to their unfavorable judgments by composing this missive. In the 2nd paragraph, he addresses the foreigner issue. In the missive written by the reverend they say ( like it was something new ) , that they were now confronting presentations led by foreigners ( King ) . King wants them to cognize that he is non truly an foreigner but the president of The Southern Christian Leadership Conference with an association in Birmingham. He wants to indicate out that he non merely has organisational ties but besides was invited to take part in the direct action plan in Birmingham in support of integration.

In the class of the missive, King uses philosophical, spiritual and historical illustrations to acquire his points across. In the 3rd paragraph he compares his engagement in Birmingham to that of the Prophetss of the 8th century and the Apostle Paul who besides traveled to a foreign topographic point to pass on their messages. Since King is besides a adult male of the fabric ( clergyman ) he is able to utilize these scriptural characters in his missive to exemplify his cognition of the bible and by warranting his actions on their footings he is besides able to demo his intelligent. In the following few paragraphs he talks about the presentations and the four stairss in a nonviolent run which consist of aggregation of the facts to find whether unfairnesss exist, dialogue, self-purification and direct action. He goes on to give the facts of the unfairnesss happening in Birmingham such as their record of ferociousness, Negro & # 8217 ; s unfair interventions in the tribunals and the

unresolved bombardments of Negro places and churches. He tells them that the Negro leaders had so tried to negociate in good religion but the white leaders refused. In the following dialogues, promises were made so the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to prorogue all presentations, but shortly realized that they were lied to. In paragraph 10, King foresees the inquiries that are likely in the heads of the reverend. He tells them that nonviolent direct action was necessary for the community to see that they must face the issues so that they may be taken earnestly and finally he agrees with the reverend that dialogues is the manner to travel. Kings tells the reverend that he is non afraid of the word tenseness, he is stating that tenseness is a necessary immorality to acquire the point across. He so compares himself to Socrates ( Greek philosopher of Athens ) who besides thought that it was necessary to make tenseness so those persons could lift from the bondage of myths to originative analysis. His grounds for doing tensenesss are so that the Negro’s could lift from the dark deepnesss of bias and racism to understanding and brotherhood.

In the remainder of the missive he addresses many issues such as the legality of the presentations, the breakage of the jurisprudence and the affair of him being referred to as an extremist. In paragraph 14 he uses emotional mention when he says when you have seen barbarous rabbles lynch your female parents and male parents at will and submerge your sisters and brothers at caprice. He doesn & # 8217 ; t name them Negro, so that the audience could associate to them. He wants them to cognize how a black adult male feels ever experiencing like a cipher and being afraid. In the following nine paragraphs he describes in item the difference between a merely jurisprudence and an unfair jurisprudence. This clip he uses spiritual leaders such as St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Martin Buber and Paul Tillich as illustrations to acquire his thought across. He says that a merely jurisprudence is a adult male made codification that squares with the moral jurisprudence or the jurisprudence of God. An unfair jurisprudence is a codification that is out of harmoniousness with the moral jurisprudence. He so uses Adolph Hitler to demo that even though he committed flagitious things, they were non against the jurisprudence and everything the Magyar freedom combatants did was against the jurisprudence. He wants them to cognize that even though they are interrupting the jurisprudence by protesting, he feels that it is necessary to come on in what they believe.

In paragraph 23, he begins to knock the white centrists. Peoples who say they agree with segregation but do non desire the Negro people to show because they don t want their lives disrupted. King says that these people are worst than the Ku Klux Klan and other people of ailment will, because of their shallow apprehension.