Letter from a Birmingham Jail Essay

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The essay “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, written in 1963, is a response to a letter that was written by eight white clergymen, who ultimately condemned the strategies that Dr. King used during the American Civil Rights era. It is important to note that the white clergyman who criticized his actions were the most elite members of the clergy in the entire state of Alabama. Their condemnation of Dr. King and his actions were exceedingly damaging, also because they attempted to label him as an extremist, and his tactics a manifestation of extremism. The letter from a Birmingham Jail was Dr. King’s precise rebuttal to their condemnation of him, his strategies and his goals. The letter details King’s correct argument about why nonviolent protest is essential, and why breaking an unjust law is crucial in order to reestablish justice because King shows that justice and equity needs to occur quickly, injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere, and because moderate whites do more damage than immoderate hate mongers.

King was able to give copious examples of how damaging the racial inequality was to blacks in America everywhere, thus showing why and how these rampant injustices need to be corrected swiftly. One example he gives is that “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case” (King). Given these facts, it is clear that simply waiting for time to pass and hoping that some sense of justice emerges from it is completely delusional. Alabama was a hotbed of discrimination and racial inequity and it was causing more damage to society than anything else. King does not shy away from describing the realities of the racism that thrived in the American south at the time. As King explains, “But 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; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society…” These were all the unbearable and monstrous realities of being a black in America at the time. Clearly, all these inequities were threatening the very fabric of society, as consistently dehumanizing a group of people was slowly going to chip away at the very foundation and stability of the modern world.

However, one of the aspects that makes Dr. King’s essay so effective and his rebuttal so strong, is he is able to demonstrate how these racial inequities impact children, innocent children, leading to tension and resentment in race relations.

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Consider the following, “…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people” (King). In this excerpt King demonstrates that the reach of toxic racism has no limits. By warping the mentality of children, it is succeeding in damaging the next generation, and causing greater friction between blacks and whites. Fundamentally, King’s argument showed that the damages caused by all of these injustices were putting a stain on the human psyche and human soul, and that there wasn’t a moment to lose in correcting them.

One of the most compelling aspects of King’s argument was that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This assertion clearly and succinctly shows how when a nation tolerates injustice to any group of people, it opens the door for more injustice to be tolerated to another group of people, in another form. Societies have an obligation and an extreme duty to correct injustice or they enable the danger of more injustice manifesting. Injustice is like a contagious disease that has the power to spread and to impact more people, and to expose and enable the dark side of human behavior. The American south at this period was a place where grotesque white violence was enabled and dismissed: the injustice of the time allowed this to occur over and over again, as a stain on society. When injustice against one group is allowed it puts society at grave danger for more injustice to manifest elsewhere.

Furthermore, King makes a compelling point that even though the ugly racism that is occurring in Alabama might not be occurring in northeastern states, all the states are connected, and thus the injustice that festers in the south can still impact the north. “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of….....

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