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Martin luther king and the black power movement
Effectiveness of non-violent protests during civil rights movement
Civil rights movement and Dr.Martin Luther King
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Throughout history and in recent time, there have been many events and protests that have gained attention from every aspect. These protests have happened for the hope of a peaceful world and the good of mankind. These stimulus events and people include the Florida mass shooting, NFL players kneeling, Martin Luther King Jr, and Josephine Baker. With the attention gained by these protests nationwide and throughout history, they have had many positive effects. Therefore, the methods of protests used in these various cases are effective in representing the goals of these demonstrations.
In February of 2018, a mass shooting occurred at a Florida high school. Since then, many schools have decided to hold walkouts and sit-ins to honor those who passed away at the tragedy and push for improved gun control laws. These methods of protesting for better gun control laws are effective in expressing their
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This is shown in the text when King states, “Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil… Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth... precipitated the act… Isn’t this like condemning Jesus…” (Page 328). This statement brings a connection between his audience to understand the acts done by civil rights leaders and his reasoning. He brings a connection to other scenarios to provide clarification of the actions done. King also states, “ ...when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers… when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill… when you see the vast majority…” (Page 323). This quote to the audience builds emotion as he states actions and events to make his point. Due to this, his audience feels more connected, thus allowing him to greatly persuade them. Therefore, King’s use of parallelism makes his method of speech
In 1963, Martin Luther King wrote a response to clergymen who criticized his actions while he was stuck in the Birmingham city jail. This letter, titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, was written on the side of a newspaper and secretly taken out of jail by King’s lawyer. The goal of this letter was to address and confront concerns that were brought up in the clergymen’s letter titled, “A Call for Unity”. In “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King asserts a strong emotional appeal on the clergymen who oppose his actions by placing guilt on them when he inserts Biblical references periodically throughout his letter.
While in jail, Martin Luther King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of Dr. King’s longest letters. This letter talked about about why some laws should and be broken and why there was such a need for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King wrote “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity”. This quote is important to the Civil Rights Movement because it emphasizes how many black brothers and sisters were being drowned, beaten, and hated purely on the color of their skin. They were being segregated, one example being “Funtown”, an amusement park for the white children only, Dr. King demanded this to stop. Alongside writing about the Civil Rights Movement, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., is one of the most recognized, if not the greatest civil rights activist in this century. He has written papers and given speeches on the civil rights movement, but one piece stands out as one of his best writings. “Letter from Birmingham” was an intriguing letter written by King in jail in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. He was responding to a letter written by eight Alabama Clergyman that was published in a Birmingham Alabama newspaper in 1963 regarding the demonstrations that were occurring to stop segregation. The intended audience for this letter was of course the eight clergymen, but he also had a wider audience in mind because instead of sending each individual man a letter he had it published in the local newspaper.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a catalogue of personal experiences in order to appeal to the emotions of the reader, also called pathos, by utilizing concrete language, semicolons, and lengthy sentences. He not only entices the emotions of the fellow clergymen he is addressing, but also society in general, attempting to reveal the true situation of the oppressed Negroes during this time in the Civil Rights Movement.
Argumentation has followed humans from the dawn of time as a way for us to express our ideas and for our ideas to be heard. People naturally obtain the knowledge to persuade others, either backing their opinions by fact or touching others emotionally, from growing up and through their own experiences in life. We can be persuaded by a numerous amounts of different factors pertaining to the argument. There are four different types of strategies in which an argument can be presented and make the argument effective. Martin Luther King is a key example of the utilization of the strategies as he wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Nicholas Carr also portrays the strategies with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Both authors perfectly
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was written to answer a critical "Call For Unity" by a group of clergymen in Birmingham. The clergymen were critical of King for "interloping" in the activities of their city. Dr. King said that he had every right to fight unfairness in the country that he lived in. The letter he wrote, in response to the "Call for Unity", and a statement that he would battle racial inequality wherever it was. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was the main point in his life. In this letter, he perfectly described his reasons why he felt this way, appealing to logic, emotion, and ethics.
“…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…” –Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Over the years, many groups of people have been denied basic human rights just based on simple things such as gender or race. These acts go against the UDHR, or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR is a document of the equal and inalienable rights/freedoms all people are born with. One statement from the UDHR that was disregarded is the right to an equal education. An example from not too long ago is the story of Malala Yousafzai who was shot for trying to get an education because she is a girl. Article 26 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to an education…”
He effectively argues this through a strong biblical allusion, saying, “… just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid”. By alluding the Bible King provokes pathos in his audience, who responded strongly to religion. Next, he uses a simile to compare “a boil that can never be cured [until exposed]” to “injustice [that] must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates”. His comparison justifies the fact that injustice must be exposed to “the air of national opinion before it can be cured”. People must call attention to their disgruntlement, otherwise the issues will never be resolved. King identifies this fact through the use of inverted sentence saying, “there can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs [the] community”. The inability to deny that racial injustice has taken over strengthens the idea that the individual has not only a birthright but also a responsibility to challenge unjust laws. King argues this through a parallel structure when saying, “...[I] can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme
In the following quote “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and ever kill your black brothers and sister – then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” King uses three words that were very significant when he say, “cursed, kick and kill.” These words were very shocking when reading them, for a law enforcer to verbally abuse someone and then physically hurt and take someone life. Even though law enforcer, has so much power, they should not abuse their power. King illustrates how everyone in the community is considering brothers and sisters as a whole. Uniting as a community and not individual is what going to make them strong. Out of the three appeals king uses pathos in this quote, which is using emotions as your examples. By King, using emotions he was able to let the people feel what was happening other than just telling
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed towards him in a very skillful and well thought out manner. These issues came from, “A Call For Unity”, which was a letter published by eight local clergymen expressing their feelings about what Dr. King was doing. One concern in particular that King did an outstanding job of confronting was that of the clergymen’s anxiety about him breaking the law. King addresses the question of, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” by clarifying that there are just and unjust laws. He also goes on to explain the difference between the two, the effect of unjust laws on the people that they are aimed towards, as
"Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in April 16, 1963, is a passionate letter that addresses and responds to the issue and criticism that a group of white clergymen had thrown at him and his pro- black American organization about his and his organization's non- violent demonstrative actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black Americans in Birmingham.
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an argumentative persuasive essay, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963. King had written this letter to address and respond to the criticism made by the white clergymen. The letter was an approach to end racism and hatred in a non-violent manner. The non-violent movement was organized by King and his pro-black organization called “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference”.
With this intention in mind, he brings up the notion that unjust laws are meant to be broken if the person breaking them has accepted the consequences or if breaking the law is for the bettering of society. King believed that if you break a law that your conscience deemed unjust and accept the punishment in order to make people think about the injustice that the law set in place, you have the highest respect for the law. As stated in the prior paragraph, King refers to the voting system in the state of Alabama and how it is corrupt. The way laws are being voted upon make them unjust, and, therefore, set a baseline for them to be broken. Towards the end of the passage, King brings to light how the police officers were commended for their actions of keeping the protesters in “order and preventing violence”. The white community believed that all laws were just because they did not negatively affect their lives. The black community speaking out and protesting against laws they viewed as unjust were perceived as obscene by the white community. This point of view demonstrates Kings beliefs that unjust laws are breakable, because while the white community in Alabama saw such protests as obscene and unneeded, the rest of the country tuned in to watch everything unfold.
In 1963, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South, so civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. brought his campaign of nonviolent resistance to Birmingham. After leading a demonstration on April 12, 1963, King was arrested for violating demonstration ordinances. Shortly after, eight white clergymen in Birmingham sent out a public statement claiming that although they support desegregation, they advise against anymore protests advocated by King, stating that the “demonstrations are unwise and untimely” (Carpenter et al,). While in jail, King took an opportunity to continue his campaign by responding to these eight white clergymen. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King uses religious and philosophical allusions to
He felt that all Americans should be equal and that they should forget about injustice and segregation. He wanted America to know what the problems were and wanted to point out the way to resolve these problems. In his speech, King uses different types of rhetorical guidelines. He uses them to show his points in a better and easier way to understand. At the beginning he successfully uses mythos. A myth has a deep explanatory or symbolic resonance for the audience.