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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Letter from The Birmingham Jail Historically, Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most well-known public figures in the black community during his time. King Jr. was living in Atlanta, Georgia and was serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state. King was part of many organizations across the south, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. When King Jr’s local affiliate of Birmingham invited him to the city he gladly consented. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for being an incredibly gifted and intelligent man and his letter from Birmingham jail perfectly reflected his this. Throughout his letter, King Jr. illustrates his feelings, thoughts, …show more content…

and his staff arrived in Birmingham with the purest of intentions to engage in a nonviolent program to encourage the city of Birmingham to bring back justice to the races. King Jr. came to encourage the city by peacefully participating in a protest that what they are doing to Black community is wrong and unjust. The logical reasoning in Kings letter is that segregation cannot end if the white moderates cannot change their way of thinking; in other words, King is “convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as “rabble rousers” and “outside agitators”,” (para. 21) eventually the Black community will unravel into violence and racial chaos. Furthermore, King Jr. makes it known that there are two opposing forces within the Black community. One side is reserved and has become accustomed to the segregation laws, as a result, has no self-respect or sense of identity. The opposing side, which is mostly middle class, has become insensitive to the underlying issues because at some point they have profited from segregation. King Jr. establishes his point that segregation cannot continue this way if the white and black community does not solve their differences within each other; for these reasons, they will not be able to live among each other peacefully. Throughout his letter, King Jr. encourages the clergymen to see and understand the issues surrounding segregation. King Jr. states that he has “longed to hear white ministers say, follow this decree because integration is morally

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