Examples Of Injustice In Letter From Birmingham Jail

The Letter From the Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King Jr., portrays what injustice meant towards the African American people living in the South. This letter is concerning his defense of the protests he was involved in, and the acts of nonviolent resistance towards racism. This letter argued that people who were subjected to being treated unjustly, had a moral responsibility to act out against it. Throughout history and still to this day, the topic of justice has been the object of dispute. Justice has been defined as fair treatment and lawfulness. How is injustice, therefore, defined? Injustice has been defined as lack of justice, or unfairness. I disagree with how this definition explains injustice because of how simplified it is. Injustice is also based on the experiences and events that people go through that are unjust. Most people think that inequality is only based on political injustice and legal injustice; however Martin Luther King Jr. argues that in addition to these two injustices, there is also individual injustice and social

injustice.
The definition of political injustice is denying somebody the right to vote, the right to having a free speech and the right to peacefully assemble. One of the major political injustices referenced in this letter by Martin Luther King Jr. was being denied the right to vote. He says, “Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population” (71). Preventing a population of people from voting, which is a natural right for every single person in the United States, is political injustice. Even though African American people in Alabama made up the majority of the population, they were still politically powerless. The white people in Alabama were trying to achieve a higher power through means of voting and making sure there remained a white ruler in charge. So, they denied African Americans the right to engage in these activities like voting, that were associated with the governance of their area. This political injustice isn’t just about depriving African American people of their political rights like voting, free speech and peaceful assembly, but it is also about how they as a group, were excluded from the political activities that these rights were supposed to protect. In addition to the political injustice these African American people faced, the legal injustice they faced goes hand in hand.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter goes into detail of what a just law should entail and what an unjust law entails. The definition of legal injustice is the unjust and inequitable treatment of all individuals under the law. This has significance within his letter regarding what injustice means because he himself was a victim of legal injustice while writing this letter from the jail. He says, “I don’t believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls...” (79). King explains in this part of his letter that the law against parading without a license, which is what he was in jail for, isn’t unjust. But, that the way the law was applied in a discriminatory way, where the police force was abusing the African American protestors, that was unjust. He also mentions in his letter that people praised the police force for arresting the African American protestors for keeping the order in the streets and inhibiting violence. This is the clearest example of how King is defining legal injustice because in a way, he is mocking how people regard the police force, by providing an example of how unjust their actions were. How these African American people were being treated in the Birmingham Jail, as well as most of the South at this time, brings up the individual injustices that these people were facing every day.
The definition of individual injustice is the violation of one’s rights, centered on a case-by-case basis.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that if you were being treated unjustly, you had the right and responsibility to stand up for yourself and to the oppressors. He says, “Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust” (71). King acknowledges that the law itself for parading without a permit is a just law, but that it was unfairly applied to only African American people, to further segregate them from society. It may have been unjust to break the law, but if breaking this law would end the injustice they were facing like being pushed, cursed, slapped and kicked in jail, then they broke it for an honorable

reason.
In addition to the individual injustices that African Americans were facing during this time in Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. notes that social injustice was also prevalent. Individual and social justices are different than political and legal justice because you cannot have meaningful political and legal justice, if you do not have individual and social justice. The definition of social injustice is repressing somebody’s ability to engage in social activities within the area that they reside in. He says, “…speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park…Funtown is closed to colored children” (70). Segregation sets one apart from another, in this case based off of one’s skin color, and suppresses the freedom that all people are promised in the Declaration of Independence. Using the example described in this quote, the amusement park was a public amusement park meaning that it was open to everyone, as a whole. Even if Funtown were a private amusement park, denying one race of individuals to enter into the amusement park would be repressing their ability to engage in social activities in the area that they live in.
In the closing of his letter, Martin Luther King Jr. talks about how African Americans in the South were being arrested and publicly chastened by the police force for their nonviolent protests. Nonetheless, he extols these protests for what they stand for. He says they “…preserve the evil system of segregation…I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation” (79). Since these people were endeavoring to stop the discrimination they were facing, and did this in a peaceful manner that respected their Judeo-Christian values that all men are created equal, King saw it as exactly what this oppressed group needed. They needed a push of confidence to grasp that they were being treated unjustly, and that they did have the power to stand up to the social injustices that they were facing.
These examples of social injustices can be defined as the textbook definition of social injustice, but in the following examples of social injustice, Martin Luther King Jr. dives deeper into the meaning of injustice and what it meant to the people of this time period. He uses events that African American people have gone through to describe the injustice as “…living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’” (70). To be a person, you have to be regarded as a human being who is an individual within your society. When you are regarded as a non-person, you are nonexistent or are unimportant within your society. This “nobodiness” that many African American people experienced in the South was a struggle between human dignity and their intrinsic worth. They were fighting to fit into a society that disregarded their human dignity, while feeling like within themselves, they had a strong intrinsic worth. Society makes certain oppressed groups feel on edge at all times, making them feel that they have no place in our society. You cannot have legal and political justice without individual and social justice. King makes a point in his letter to describe all four of these injustices and how they were present during this time period.
This “inhuman” or callous treatment of the African American people in the South is exactly what injustice is. Injustice isn’t about what it is; it is about who is affected by it, and how they are treated by society. Injustice is lynching people because of their skin color and killing children’s parents right in front of them since they aren’t white and don’t have the same religious values. Injustice is denying a certain race the right to vote, a right that all people are granted in the First Amendment. Injustice is degrading one’s personality and character. Injustice is a direct action against a group of people in order to purify one’s self. Injustice is still prevalent in society today, and all four of these injustices plague our country almost just as much as they had in 1963. After about 60 years, our country still hasn’t figured out that treating someone unjustly is prohibiting certain people the rights that say, “All men are created equal.”