Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail Essay

Power Analysis: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail A statement from eight white clergymen from Alabama prompted Martin Luther King’s â€Å"Letter From Birmingham Jail†. This statement criticized Kings actions of non-violent protests against racial segregation and the injustice of unequal civil rights in America (Carpenter elt al.). The eight clergymen considered Birmingham to be â€Å"their† town and King was disrupting the â€Å"Law and Order and Common Sense† established in coping with racial issues in Alabama during this time (Carpenter elt al. par 1). These clergymen considered King an â€Å"outsider† and describe his actions as â€Å"unwise and untimely† (Carpenter elt al. par 3). This statement suggests that there is an appropriate time†¦show more content†¦Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s letter was influential in inspiring and ultimately altering societal attitude on racial issues. He used a creative use of language that addresses any plausible audience including: t he clergymen, the religious moderates, the equal rights supporters and the oppressed black community. The use of famous icons, religious leaders, and traditional scholars as references provided a multitude of examples that clearly illustrated King’s key points. Moreover, King carefully analyzed the duplicity of racial segregation through examples of â€Å"civil disobedience† among important historical icons valued in society (King par 21). In doing this King is able to utilize Luke’s, three-dimensional approach and tilt the power dynamic in his favor. It is Luke’s political strategy that helps King to create the desired power shift. His approach forces his audience to look beyond the surface (one-dimensional view), into the First-Amendment rights to protest (second-dimensional view), and further into the behavior that oppresses and segregates the black community (third-dimensional view) (Lukes). King creates parallels and invokes images that are fa miliar to his audience. In particular, in aims these images to the White Anglo Saxon society by creating the awareness of their hypocrisy. King uses the examples of Shadrach, Meschack and Abendego, whoShow MoreRelatedMartin Luther King Jr. s Letter From A Birmingham Jail1157 Words   |  5 PagesMartin Luther King Jr.’s â€Å"Letter from a Birmingham Jail† is directed towards the clergymen, although America is his audience, King had come to Birmingham to address the segregation problem in the United States. He refuses to stay silent, even though people told him to wait for the change to happen. King is a part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that has many organizations across the South. 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Just as Kant’s magnum opus, Critique of Pure Reason, attempted to completely upend a previously accepted mode of thought, soRead MoreMartin Luther King Jr.s Letter From Birmingham Jail890 Words   |  4 PagesFrom 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings occurred in the United States (NAACP). African Americans accounted for 72.2% of recorded lynchings, yet close to none of these lynchings were ever brought justice. Racial injustice was a huge issue until the mid-l ate twentieth century, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail† was one of the first documents to address the issue. 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Martin Luther King Jr. effectively crafted his counter argument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen, and then using logosRead More Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail Essay1149 Words   |  5 PagesMartin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Martin Luther King Jr. writes the Clergymen that have written him a letter disputing his actions in Birmingham. King is disturbed and offended by the Clergymen disagreeing with his purpose in Birmingham. King say he normally does not respond to criticism because it would waste to much precious time, but since these were men of good will he wanted to give his answers to their statements. In Kings letter he appeals to many emotions as