Letter From Birmingham Jail Analysis

The Nineteen Sixties were a tumultuous time for the United States. John F. Kennedy had taken the reins of the country, later being succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson after his assassination, the University of Mississippi was desegregated, and the decade was witness to the March on Washington. This momentous time in history saw the rise and fall of several powerful men and women and was the dawn of The Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of those men who gave his life for what he believed in and was instrumental in helping to transform the U.S. into a nation that is truly the land of the free. It was in April of 1963 that King Jr. wrote one of his most eloquent pleas for racial justice, the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”,

One week in June saw the arrests of more than 15,000 people across 186 cities for taking part in demonstrations to gain equality as well as over 50 bombings of black homes and institutions since World War II (2014a, 975). King Jr. knew that he had to make people make a choice, to either be on the side of equality and justice, or to side with violent segregationists. He made the decision to send children into the demonstrations. When police reacted with violence toward them the nation was aghast and helped spur on the movement. Shortly after there was a march on Washington which was the largest public demonstration in the nation’s history up to that time (2014a, 976). It’s difficult to comprehend that the descriptions of the time are accurate based on King Jr.’s letter while he was sitting in prison in Birmingham but one simply cannot argue with the historical record, such as King Jr. himself being wiretapped over concerns that the Civil Rights Movement was inspired by communism (2014a,

wrote. One being Power and another being, of course, Freedom and Liberty. The power theme shows itself when King Jr. responds to the allegations his critics set forth when they say his demonstrations are “unwise and untimely” (2014b, 268). The local clergy were trying to prevent unorderly conduct by openly critiquing the demonstrations. They were hoping to persuade the demonstrators leaders to simply as to not rock the boat, so to speak. The theme of power is also present in King Jr.’s description of having to tell his daughter she can’t go to the public amusement park that had just opened because it was closed to colored children (2014b, 270).. He goes on to detail the humiliation that takes place by the nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”, and how no hotel would accept blacks when driving cross country, forcing them to sleep in their cars (2014b, 270). This is oppression, simply put. One group exerting its power over another. However, Freedom and Liberty also show up when King Jr. confesses that over the past few years he had become gravely disappointed in the white moderate. He implores them to not allow the desire for order overcome the necessity for justice. He details how people of good will and shallow understanding which are in the majority are much more dangerous to liberty and freedom than people of absolute misunderstanding and ill well (2014b, 271). Those good willed outnumber the