Martin Luther King Jrs Letter from Birmingham Jail - Research Paper Example

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King writes the letters while he is in jail. He is a reverend from the minority group in the South, advocating for defense against racial injustices in a Civil Rights Movement. King writes to the clergymen and appeals to them to support his bid for nonviolent action, emphasizing on those religious figures who are based in proximity to areas that racial injustices are highly prevalent. In his letters, King insists for nonviolent action as the most appropriate and future undertaking of the civil rights movement. There are several motivations he cites for the call for nonviolent action. To begin with, he cites ways in which can injustice can be discovered and according to him, there was racial injustice against the minority. Further, he notes the prevalence of two types of laws, the just and the unjust. He says that the unjust law leads to unfair treatment of the minority people and goes ahead to state that, such a law is not law at all and therefore, it should be abolished by all means. King goes ahead to express his disappointment in all the people who witness the injustice happening in their midst and chose to remain silent about it. Most of his disappointment is directed to his fellow religious colleagues who he feels have done very little to fight the racial injustices. It is then that he calls for them to help restore equality by telling that they cannot sit idly as Christians and allows their brethren to suffer. His call for action and why it is very important for everyone to unite and fight alongside him has been retaliated all throughout the letter and especially at the end. King’s letter has effectively used major appealing techniques to show the evil of racial injustice and call for action to fight for equality. This paper seeks to show the relevance and credibility of King’ letter in his quest for equality. King’s letter is very appealing especially since his conclusion for the fight of racial injustices involves the call for nonviolent action. He notes that non-violent action is the future for the civil rights movement as it does not aggravate the situation. While the term ‘nonviolent’ action seems to be ambiguous, he goes ahead to explain what exactly he means by nonviolent action and what actions constitute nonviolent action. He provides a list of the nonviolent actions which are intended to provide insights into the questions he poses, “Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches and so forth?” (King, 1963, p. 214). It is through the list and the examples provided that the readers get to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the necessary curse of action that King refers to when he advocates for nonviolent action to be employed by civil rights movements. Despite King’s strong arguments, there are major weaknesses which may weaken the call for action he is trying to propagate (Hornsby, 42). First, he makes a great assumption that because the clergymen are Christians, they should have the same kind of thought with him. This is attributed to his strong opinion about Christianity and how Christians are supposed to conduct themselves. When he says that Christians should never watch idly as their brothers and sister suffer injustices, it shows that he thinks that all Christians value the same code of conduct as he. He goes ahead to claim that, “the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church…be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning,” (King, 1963, p. 222). This is be a very personal statement which he has used to include all the Christians, even with different conviction levels. Christians are of different levels provided they believe in God. Given that King is a reverend, his level of conviction is definitely higher than most Christians and therefore, his argument should be carefully crafted in order to encompass the feelings of all Christians. At the current level, most of the Christians would feel intimidated religiously thereby limiting their response to his call for action. Furthermore, King seems to contradict his call for equality when he insinuates that the white moderates or ‘common whites’ do not care for justice. He says, “more devoted to order than to justice,” (King, 1963, p. 217). This insinuation may, however, be very untrue. He lacks the evidence to base this claim since it is very possible that the white moderate has no knowledge of the intention of the civil rights movements and therefore, may not know how to help them. There is a great possibility that the white moderate think that they have satisfactorily achieved equality even in the application of separate laws among the races. Since the significant amount of King’s argument is based on this premise, it weakens for stand since there is an instance of racial discrimination towards the whites (Tiefenbrun, 267). Nevertheless, there is very strong argument from King’s letter to show the validity ad credibility for his call for equality and end to racial injustices. First, he introduces himself as a very credible voice of the minority who has seen most of the unfair treatment based on race. All his assertions are evidenced by substantive illustrations of his thoughts, appeals to authority, examples, analogies, and appeal to pathos a well as definitions. At the beginning of the letter, King introduces himself as “The President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia…[it has] eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights” (King, 1963, p. 2). The description in the introduction adds to the credibility of his argument by giving him power to speak for the people of the south, since it is clear that he has clear knowledge of the problems the people from the south are facing. moreover, the states that he has travelled to all the places with intense racial injustices such as Mississippi , Alabama and many more southern states during different seasons and he is aware of the racial issues that the southern people are going through with regards to racial injustices. The letter demonstrates clear references from writers, presidents and the bible to show that King’s position regarding the fight against racial injustices is supported by both the intellectual and righteous class. King avoids making sweeping statements when he explain the differences between the just and the unjust laws. He uses illustrations and examples to explain unjust laws, why they should be abolished and the necessary course of action. By appealing to authority, he makes his point very close to the audience, “A just law is a manmade code that squares with moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law,” (King, 1963, p. 216). Other definitions are used to explain unjust laws while appealing to authority at the same time. Afterwards, he uses many examples and illustration to show the differences between just and unjust laws and why people from the south require the application of just laws for equality purposes. His explanation is clear and creates strong vivid images which enhances his call for action. Having lived in the real life situation where racial injustices are prevalence, King is very successful in bringing the context of the letter to the understanding of other people so that the evils of the separate laws can be understood clearly. This is effectively done by appealing to pathos. He makes several appeals to pathos in his letter by using stories that are related to the common people and especially to families. For instance, when he says, “when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park...and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait,” (King, 1963, p. 215). This illustration has the power to emotionally influence the readers as it is an issues that touch on the family of the people affected. There is a very high tendency of people reacting to such emotional appeal since such an illustration not only illustrates the current disturbance, but the racial issues that are looming in the future generation. When one reads through the emotions of King, there is a clear understanding on his motivation for writing such a letter and despite the racial affiliation of the reader, seeing he racial issues through the eyes of King has the power to motivate people to be on his side and fight alongside him in the quest for equality (Mott, 415). There is great logic in King’s argument as demonstrated by the use of counterarguments, which serves as a discredit to his critics as well as a reinforcement to his quest for justice and equality for the minority in the south. This point can be evidenced by his assertion that, even if he is called an extremists, he still holds that Christians and the clergymen in areas affected by racial injustices should share in his conviction and take action against the perpetrators of such action and the white moderators should show concern for racial minority. He asserts that his extremism should not be viewed as cause for discrediting what he stands for especially by those who view him in a negative light. He creates a sense of dilemma and conviction in the mind of the readers by using names of highly revered and respected people who were also considered extremists regardless of their cause. He says that he, “gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus and extremist in love?...Was not Amos an extremist for justice?...Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?...Was not Martin Luther...John Bunyan...Abraham Lincoln...Thomas Jefferson an extremist?” (King, 1963, p. 219). By placing himself in the list of highly regarded people who are also extremists, King compares himself to them, which creates the perception that all these people are with him in this call. In this case, those who regard him as a racist have a reason to choose to follow him alongside all the other influential people. This move enhances the promotion of his ideology that nonviolent action is the only and the most appropriate way of fighting for the rights of the minority who are treated unfairly based on their skin color. King also makes his argument more appealing to his readers by countering the argument of the Clergymen when they insinuate that the nonviolent demonstrations at Birmingham led to increased fault on the part of the civil rights movements as they viewed the situation as if it was already simmering. King addresses this concern by attacking directly on the areas which were most affected by the racial injustices. He says, “Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which…not a single Negro is registered” (King, 1963, p. 4). While the general description of the racial injustice was very effective in the letter, the use of Alabama directly was a case of harsh illustration that could not be overlooked. This gives the readers a close view of the situation as opposed to the view of racial injustice as a foreign concept. On this note, King also appeals to the just and unjust law as well as to the constitution of America. The appeal to the ordinances and equal rights in order to ensure successful reception of his call for action. He says that the reason for his arrest and detainment in jail was because of “parading without a permit”. King acknowledges that such a provision in the constitution is very important. However, “ordinance…it becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest”. The use of his own personal situation to explain how the law has been applied in his own case to enhance racial injustice makes it personal and people get to consider the action that needs to be taken in order to ensure that there is equality in the rights of the Americans regardless of the color of the skin. Despite the fact that his assumption that all the Christians should hold his conviction seems to be a weakness in his part, King uses the either or statement to make his statement more convincing to his readers. The main point he points to when appealing to the clergymen and the Christians to follow him in the cause of seeking equality implies that those who follow him should take nonviolent action against racial injustice as those who do not take nonviolent action are regarded to be morally incorrect. For instance, when he says that, “has longed to hear white ministers say, follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother,” (King, 1963, p. 221), he puts the readers in a dilemma to either join in the nonviolent fight for equality, or be considered a morally incorrect person. Since most people don’t want to be rendered as morally incorrect, it prompts them to stand up and believe and that agreeing with King is the best choice in order to ensure that they remain morally correct (Klein, 34). King’s letter is a very inspirational piece for his intended audience which has the power to change their perception towards joining him in his quest for equal rights for the colored population. Although the letter has some weakness which may be explored by his critics to dispute his concerns, his rebuttal of such issues has been done intelligently by application of illustrations, definition of terms, appeal to authority, examples and even appeal to emotions. In his letter, Kings illustrates all the unjust cases of ill treatment of the Negros and why Christians should join forces to ensure that everybody in America gets equal treatment as advocated in the constitution. He solidifies his persuasion by placing his audience in the closer place to the injustice. Works Cited Hornsby, A. Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham jail”. The Journal of Negro History, 71(4), 38-44. 1986. Print. Klein, M. The other beauty of Martin Luther King, Jr.s "Letter from Birmingham Jail". College Composition and Communication, 31(1), 30-37. 1981. Print. King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The Norton Anthology of African American. 1963. Print. Mott, W.T. The rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham jail. Phylon, 36(4), 411-421. 1975. Print. Simons, H.W., Morreale, J., & Gronbeck, B. Persuasion in society. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc. 2001. Print. Tiefenbrun, S. Semiotics and Martin Luther Kings "Letter from Birmingham jail". Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, 4(2), 255-287. 1992. Print. Read More