The Negro Is Your Brother Analysis

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Martin Luther King, Jr. had been arrested and imprisoned in Birmingham in 1963 regarding his protest activities. Birmingham at the time was segregated, meaning it was legal for businesses to insist that African-Americans use only certain areas or refuse service altogether. King wrote the open letter in response to one written by eight white clergymen criticizing his actions. It was first published in The Atlantic magazine under the title "The Negro is Your Brother."
In the letter, Dr. King defended the legitimacy of using protests and demonstrations and even breaking the law in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation and racism. His organization had attempted to negotiate with white business owners with little result. He insisted that …show more content…

He lamented the feelings of white moderates and the white church establishment itself who valued order rather than justice for his people. Dr. King stated his belief that history will see the protesters as the real heroes and signed the letter "Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood." ing makes a distinction between just/moral and unjust/immoral laws and makes the claim that un-just laws do not have to be obeyed. Segregation laws are unjust and therefore must not be obeyed. Furthermore, Negroes are prevented from voting and changing the laws and so the laws are politically and undemocratically unjust. These laws must be disobeyed openly so that their breacher, by breaking the law, illustrates the unfairness of it.
King cites precedents of civil disobedience that changed society for the better, and instances of unjust laws.
King is disappointed with the "white moderate" who is content with keeping the peace rather than justice, and so are resistant to the necessary tension that is a product of the civil rights revo-lution. They agree with the principle of equality but not to the actions that must be taken to achieve it. They think that blacks should wait before claiming their rights. He is grateful for the few whites that do join the black

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