From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.” In order to gain an understanding of King’s purpose for the letter, it is important to begin by explaining “A Call of Unity”, a letter written by a group of white clergymen urging the end to the demonstrations. The letter was published in the Birmingham Post Herald with a copy given to King. The letter made many claims including that the demonstrations were led by ou... ... middle of paper ... ...ccupy Wall Street Protests Spread Nationwide - ABC News." ABCNews.com: Daily News, Breaking News and Video Broadcasts - ABC News. 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. . Haines, Herbert H.. "Black Radicalization and the Funding of the Civil Rights: 1957-1970." Social Problems 32.1 (1984): 31-43. HeinOnline. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. King, Jr., Martin Luther. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” King Institute Home. Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, 16 Apr. 1963. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. . Marshall, Burke . "The Protest Movement and the Law." Virginia Law Review 51.5 (1965): 785- 803. JSTOR. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.
New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 11 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 May 2010.
On April 3rd, 1963, the Birmingham campaign began and people were protesting against racism and injustice. The non-violent campaign was coordinated by King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. However, King was roughly arrested with other main leaders of the campaign on April 12th for disobeying the rules of “no parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing”. While jailed, King read a letter (“A call for unity”) written by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods from the newspaper. In the letter, the clergymen stated that the campaign were "directed and led in part by outsiders," urging activists to use the courts if rights were being denied rather than to protest. The letter provoked King and “the Letter from Birmingham jail” was a written response to the white clergy men and to defend the strategy of non-violent protesting. Throughout the letter, King used many stylistic writing elements and effective emotional appealing to make people want to join his case.
The bombings and marches in Birmingham Alabama were major concerns for all civil rights leaders. During the 50’s and 60’s, civil rights leaders fought against injustice in different ways. Some civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson fought against injustice with a pen. In 1963 Martin Luther King wrote a letter titled, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, and Jessie Jackson wrote, “Jets of Water Blast Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, 1963.” Martin Luther King and Jessie Jackson are two civil rights leaders of different generations, but with similar views concerning the Birmingham bombings.
In the touching, influential letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. responds to the white, Alabama clergymen who condemned his movement as “unwise and untimely” (1) and delineates his motives for traveling to Birmingham, where whites consider him an “outsider” (1). Hoping to express his ambition of nonviolent protest in a sympathetic, deferential manner, he implores the white clergy to join the struggle for Civil Rights. Throughout the letter, he addresses and disputes against each negative argument by the whites, testifying his position unpretentiously, yet confidently. With aptitude, poise, and humility, King establishes his motives for coming to such an unwelcoming environment. In his heart-rending letter, King’s coherent logos, stimulating rhetorical questions, and accentuating parallel structure express to the white moderates who criticized his actions that nonviolent, direct protest is not only essential, but also inevitable to contain agitated hostility and to assume relative peace.
The statement written by the clergymen and directed at Martin Luther King Jr. was a direct action to manage the “game” and “regulate the action,” as Michael Schwalbe theorized (163). By detaining King for “parading without a permit” the Birmingham Police Force attempted to manage King’s actions with punishment (King, par. 14). By denying King the “First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest” (14) the Birmingham Police Department is protecting their “identity stakes” (Schwalbe, 165), of white privilege. The white power structure described in King’s letter was “to preserve the evil system of segregati...
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He graduated college with honors and developed a talent for public speaking. A man by the name of Edgar D. Nixon saw King’s public-speaking gifts as great assets in the battle for black civil rights in Montgomery, where the bus system was about to be boycotted on account of Rosa Park’s incarceration. King slowly became a well-known civil rights leader that gave many speeches and non-violent protests. This is about the time that King studied the writings of Henry David Thoreau, especially Civil Disobedience. Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many times when citizens have felt the need to revolt against the government. Times of revolt where when Henry Thoreau was alive and during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. The reasons for ...
It was change created by a human for the human, a change which made the life of others livable. During the civil rights movement in America in 1960’s various techniques were used to gain the civil rights for the black people in a series of which came the “Letter form Birmingham jail” written by Martin Luther King himself. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was a profound and persuasive written argument which captured the emotions of many people encompassing rigid life experiences, educated observances, and deeply rooted spiritual beliefs. In this letter King freely expressed his position concerning the injustice that black people faced in America. This injustice was segregation for the system of laws and customs separating blacks and whites that whites used to control blacks after slavery that was abolished in 1860’s in the American Civil Rights. While imprisoned in April of 1963 King directly responded to "Letter from Eight White Clergymen" using a variety of argumentative techniques.
In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King, Jr. describes the harsh treatment of Negroes while they were fighting for their freedom. Negroes were not allowed to vote, sit at lunch counters with whites, use the same restrooms as whites, or even ride next to whites on buses. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the Birmingham movement in efforts to gain freedom for the Negroes. The Birmingham movement was successful because it gained freedom for blacks, desegregated many places, and it opened up many job opportunities for blacks that they never had before.
The year of 1963 had an extreme amount of racial tension and arguments about the rights of African Americans. The white people were vastly prejudice towards the blacks and used all kinds of falderal. Several people began to stand up and show their opinions about the civil disobedience that the laws stood for. Many did this in a public manner therefore they were arrested and sent to jail. An example of this was Martin Luther King, Jr. when he wrote “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” during the time of the protests. All of the people’s opinions are what led to the March on Washington. “In the summer of 1941 A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Broth...
In April and May of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama was a focal point for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was home to one of the most violent cells of the KKK and violence against black people was so commonplace (especially in the form of explosives) that it was referred to as “Bombingham.” It was these conditions that lead Martin Luther King to arrive and organize a series of non-violent protests in the city. These protests were relatively low key and weren’t very well attended. This was due to the fact that political rivalries between King’s organization, the SCLC, and other civil right’s organizations like CORE and the NAACP. However, the Birmingham protests soon became headlines due to the response of the city’s police commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Conner, to the protests. Seeing any kind of black protest as a threat to his rule, Conner sent out police and firemen to subdue the non-violent protests. Soon enough scenes such as German Shepherds attacking black men and firemen hosing down protesters with high-pressure hoses became emblazoned across the country’s newspapers. Martin Luther King had also been arrested for his role in the protests (his 13th time) and while in jail, wrote his well know “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in response to another letter published by eight white Alabama clergymen (An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense). This letter written by King went on to be published in national newspapers and circulated through various churches in pamphlet form.
Markovits, Daniel. "Democratic disobedience." Yale Law Journal June 2005: 1897+. Criminal Justice Collection. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
This letter powerfully persuades his points on why he was in Birmingham, why he acted in a non-violent direct action, why the timing was when it was and that segregation needs to end. He uses this letter in order to persuade the clergymen into understanding his reasons for all the above. He uses logos, pathos and ethos to show the passion behind his cause. This letter opened eyes onto people of that time. Segregation is unjust and that the laws should not bend just for color. He quotes St. Augustine, “an unjust law is no law at all.” This quote sums up the whole letter and its purpose; laws should be just for all and that when it is not it is man’s job to seek justice, peacefully. Just as peacefully he had done with the non-violent protest.
According to Hari Sharma, Martin Luther King was a leader of peaceful protests against the segregation of African-Americans. In 1963, the city of Birmingham passed a legal provision banning street protests without permission (Sharma, 2007). Hence, the black people of Birmingham felt that they are not allow
I do agree that civil disobedience negatively impacts a free society. Many look at this as peaceful protest, no harm done to each opposing party, although this type of protest has a deeper impact than you would think. If a large group of people go on strike to oppose a business, it stops the business from making money and stops people from shopping at that store location. Since the protesters aren't causing any harm, the police can not use physical force to remove the people from this location, since they would be on a public location. This causes a major problem because the protesters either get what they want, or they get removed by force by the police and even if it was legal, the public eye will shame the law enforcers and look down upon
Thoreau’s use of civil disobedience on unethical issues was a new form of rebellion that activists such as Martin Luther King represented. MLK used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to create an overwhelming, long lasting effect on his audience, making MLK the most influential patriot of the modern Civil Rights movement. In a popular letter known as, The Letter from a Birmingham Jail, MLK responded to several white ministers, who had written a letter opposing his actions and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during their peaceful demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham. In this letter he wrote, “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” (MLK__) MLK was a man of great moral values as a preacher, a husband, a father and an inspirational orator. He gained power and fame through the speeches that he wrote and delivered from the church pulpit. His message began to circulate in the hearts of others and circle the towns with a fever for change. His peaceful words were a catalyst for a nation to stand up, rise up and see the errors of our nation, that for many years had threatened us with unrest amongst all citizens alike. MLK’s rebellion against