In order to achieve true freedom one must discover that you can break unjust laws through peaceful protest. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and “The Speech at The March Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community, the equality and power of education. We must learn to act with patients and not guns we must protect are self’s with a pen and paper not violence. Dr. King once4 said “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is unique in history which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals”. In “Speech at The March on Washington” Josephine Baker states “you must get an education, you must go to school and you must learn to protect yourself”. Here she is saying that we must educate are selves to know are rights, to fill up our minds with wisdom. The message is mainly going to the youth, she explaining you must educate yourself to not get fooled or abused by any ignorant. Josephine also states “Then you can answer them and I can tell you and I don’t want to sound corny but friends the pen is really mightier than the sword”. This quote is valid and relevant to Backers claim because she is …show more content…
They are made of a reason and they are in our system to respect them and follow them. Although I still believe it is correct to break unjust laws through peaceful protest. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr. states “While confined here in Birmingham city jail. I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely”. He also states “I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham since you have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders” coming in”. These two quotes indicate that Martin Luther King Jr. was identified as an intruder, but he had good and valid reasons for him to be there in
Martin Luther King Jr., who is a civil rights activist, wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963 when he was arrested for being in Birmingham civil rights demonstrations to fight for justice. He wrote this letter to respond to eight white clergymen who criticized his demonstrations as “unwise and untimely” (601). In this letter, he explained the reason and purpose of him being in Birmingham to clarify the criticism. He also mentioned about the basic steps towards any nonviolent campaign that need to go through and describe each steps that they took in Birmingham. Lastly, he distinguished the difference between the two types of laws; just and unjust laws.
Additionally, Dr. King describes the problem that is still present at his time. He mentions back to the documents when the country starts a new government. In the Declaration of Independence it states that all men are created equal. That would include African Americans, but according to Dr. King’s speech it says, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (Dream 3). The blacks were promised freedom, yet they are not as equal as the whites.
Letter From a Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this Open Letter on April 16, 1963, after he was arrested for protesting without a permit in Birmingham, Alabama. He was protesting peacefully, until a group o white people made it a big deal, which made Dr. King and other protesters in jail. He wrote this letter as a response to fellow clergyman who considered his actions “unwise and untimely”. The predominate reason of this letter is justify his presence in Birmingham, which is that he is trying to change segregation as social justice and his use of civil disobedience as an instrument of freedom. He is trying to convey his readers about his injustice in Birmingham and how it is our right and responsibility as a human being
King wrote a compelling defense of his nonviolent campaign and incited a rallying cry to the end of social injustice. His work in this letter was just as powerful and relevant as it is today, decades later. To determine whether or not the title of this work fits its message, one must first examine what it is that landed King in Birmingham jail. He states that he went to Birmingham in the first place, because, simply put, there is injustice there.
As Oscar Wilde said, “ It is through disobedience that progress has been made-- disobedience and rebellion.” Disobedience during the American Revolution was originally peaceful, but as grievances grew and British rule became harsher, Americans could no longer sit idly by. Radical disobedience to the law was necessary in order to promote change for American society. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, a drastic nonviolent movement was necessary to counteract the expectation of violence, reiterating to Americans that peaceful resistance to laws can positively affect a free society. The Civil Rights movement was split by two factions: one was a violent resistance named The Black Panthers and the other was a nonviolent protest led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Peaceful resistance begins with one person or group battling an injustice, like Rosa Parks who inspired others to protest segregation during the Civil Right’s Movement. Protesters must next raise awareness about the issue and invite others to protest with them so that the issue can be “brought out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with”(Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”). As the movement grows, the government is forced to comply with the demands to change the law, the result of King’s effort against segregation. Once that law is changed, the government is altered to accommodate that change, leading to greater changes in the nation’s morals and ideals. These changes are then able to influence how others perceive those issues and may subsequently influence other nations to change their governments.
Peaceful resistance to laws positively affect a free society. Throughout history, there have been multiple cases of both violent and peaceful protests. However, the peaceful protests are the ones that tend to stick with a society and are the ones that change the society for the better. In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter about just and unjust laws while he was in Birmingham jail for peacefully protesting. King came to Birmingham because "injustice is here".
Do you think it is fair to mistreat or not give the same rights to someone because of the color of their skin? In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Speech at the March on Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community during the 1960’s and about equality and the power of education. In order to achieve true freedom one must find a peaceful approach to find a solution. To being with, it is just to break an unjust law by protesting in a peaceful manner to conquer freedom. For example, in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on pages 325-326 in lines 233-242 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. states, “For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading
Martin Luther King wanted to spark emotion in both the African American and white audience. He wanted to spark the emotion in the African American for them to join the non-violence movement. Dr. King said, “but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth” to bring emotion in fellow African American to the growth of racial equality. He wanted to spark the emotion in the White community to lessening the aggressiveness by giving insight on the everyday life of the African American. In paragraph 10 he quotes, “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, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity”.
The 1963 March on Washington is arguably the most notable event of the cutting edge civil rights movement. More than 250,000 people from across America came together in Washington D.C. in a peaceful demonstration with the hope of bringing an end to racial segregation within the educational system, as well as help to create job equality as well as the freedom of African-Americans as a whole. The march played a pivotal role in the growing fight for civil rights, no more so than that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was a discourse of hope and determination, and it typified the message the marchers declared of racial equality and a conviction that Black and White Americans could live respectively in peace. This essay will
We the Students Essay Madison Jones Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. Peaceful resistance opens the eyes of many who may be blind to what’s really going on in the world. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King discusses the increasing acts of violence and hatred towards African Americans in the U.S. King’s usage of raw imagery, pathos, and religious language portray the complicated relationship between the battered Negro and the common white man. King uses savage imagery to exemplify the brutality African Americans were subjected to at the time. King writes, “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”
For a long time in my life I thought to get what you want in life you had to be behind the gun and not in front of it. But now, I see that violence only creates violence and true change comes from non-violence. I am writing this paper to argue that Martin Luther King's non-violent protest are more successful than violent protest. To start off, Martin Luther King had every right to protest. The reason I say this is because the social contract was broken.
One of the criticisms faced by MLK, is that although his demands for justice are made in a peaceful manner, will provoke violence in others. It is claimed that there is irony in this statement, that peaceful actions can lead to violence. However, we must observe the truth in the statement made by the people of Birmingham. Anarchy, by definition, is a state of disorder in which there is a lack of authority or a complete disregard of it. In Martin Luther King's act of civil disobedience, he is disregarding the authority that is the law in Birmingham.
Civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had protested for civil rights throughout the most segregated places within the united states of America (at the time). Typically, Dr. King and other civil rights activists were arrested through breaking some unjust law in a moral and humane manner. Dr. King’s arrest in Birmingham CIty, Alabama, was one such famous event, as within the confines of Jail he responded to the bigoted arguments against civil rights. Dr. King achieved this through employing the rhetorical strategies of logical reasoning, appeal to emotion, & anaphora.
Inequality and racism have always been present in the history of America. Many people battle these injustices through different forms, such as writing, speaking, or protesting. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frederick Douglass are both experienced in writing and speaking against certain injustices. In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” as well as in Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” they claim that injustice and inequality must be combatted in order for everyone to be free and equal.