Document Analysis of ‘The Letter from Birmingham Jail’
The Birmingham Campaign of 1963, was a non-violent protest to bring forward to the public eye the unjust laws in Alabama. During the protests Martin Luther King was arrested and put in jail officially for parading without a permit, but in reality it was “Bull” Connor’s way of de-unifying the movement. Whilst in jail eight clergymen from all backgrounds of religion sent him a letter through a local newspaper dubbed ‘The Call for Unity’, this is the subject of King’s open reply in his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. The letter itself was wrote on the margins of newspapers over the eight days he was there, even commenting himself it was a bit jumbled and long winded. When being put together …show more content…
Throughout he uses biblical and Historical references to show these men that they should be supporting the movement, whilst also questioning their morality and faith. knowing he is talking to a Rabbi he refers to Nazi Germany and even argues that if he was in Nazi Germany he would not have persecuted them the Jews, like the white moderate Jews have persecuted African Americans by segregation in the South. King compares what he is doing in Birmingham to Jesus’s good deeds. He does this to catch the readership of the Christian Church. He later goes on to discuss the Christian Church and deems them unholy, since they will not stand with the African Americans and would rather be corrupted into allowing segregation to happen as they have done for the previous one hundred years. King even deems this the turning point for the church if they were not to act, then the church would slowly fail; ‘if the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century’. Nowadays this is true since the church has not followed its moral obligation and is on the
The Birmingham Campaign of 1963, was a non-violent protest to bring forward to the public eye the unjust laws in Alabama. During the protests Martin Luther King was arrested and put in jail officially for parading without a permit, but in reality it was “Bull” Connor’s way of de-unifying the movement. Whilst in jail eight clergymen from all backgrounds of religion sent him a letter through a local newspaper dubbed ‘The Call for Unity’, this is the subject of King’s open reply in his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. The letter itself was wrote on the margins of newspapers over the eight days he was there, even commenting himself it was a bit jumbled and long winded. When being put together …show more content…
Throughout he uses biblical and Historical references to show these men that they should be supporting the movement, whilst also questioning their morality and faith. knowing he is talking to a Rabbi he refers to Nazi Germany and even argues that if he was in Nazi Germany he would not have persecuted them the Jews, like the white moderate Jews have persecuted African Americans by segregation in the South. King compares what he is doing in Birmingham to Jesus’s good deeds. He does this to catch the readership of the Christian Church. He later goes on to discuss the Christian Church and deems them unholy, since they will not stand with the African Americans and would rather be corrupted into allowing segregation to happen as they have done for the previous one hundred years. King even deems this the turning point for the church if they were not to act, then the church would slowly fail; ‘if the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century’. Nowadays this is true since the church has not followed its moral obligation and is on the