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Banessa Rivera

Susie Huerta

English 1T

2/1/2017

The Fight For Justice

Martin Luther King Jr. was a well educated social activist who played a key role in the

Civil Rights Movement. King was arrested for participating in a peaceful anti-segregation march

without having a parade permit. From a prison in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King wrote a letter

addressing several clergymen who had written an open letter criticizing his actions in the Civil

Rights Movement. In his letter, King makes sure to focus on responding to all of the criticisms

handed out by the clergymen. When being called an outsider by the men, King makes sure to

remind them that he is in fact the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,

and he is there fighting for justice, just as the Apostle Paul did when he left his village to carry

the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. King explained how the public demonstrations were necessary,

since there were no alternatives left by the white structure; the violence against the African

American community was getting out of hand, businesses all around town took a part in the

segregation and racist acts, and the political leaders were unwilling to negotiate. King describes

in detail how important it was for his organization and himself to be completely informed, thus

allowing them to act responsibly when participating in a non-violent direct action. He notes that

tension is necessary to create a sense of change and to bring up issues that affect his

community. The African American community is riddled with a dark history, full of torture and

slavery, and the time for action was now. Waiting for justice was no longer an option that Dr.

King was willing to take, and it was time to fight for their freedom. King, then switches gears,

and goes on to explain the differences between unjust and just laws. According to Dr. King, a
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just law is those who are moral, and agree with the people and the law of God. On the other

hand, an unjust law degrades certain people, such as minorities. Unjust laws are also put into

place in order to continue to keep minorities as a second class, inferior to those who make the

laws. Dr. King then addresses the white moderate. He defines them as devoted to order and not

justice. He shows his disappointment by revealing how the white moderate would rather be

superior with power despite the inequality and injustice surrounding them. In his letter, King

points out his disagreement with the police department, and gives examples of police brutality.

He then ends his letter by apologizing for its length, and he hopes they acknowledge the

problem and realize the reality of the issue of injustice. Throughout his letter King allows the

reader to visualize the injustice occurring in the country. Martin Luther King Jr. demonstrates

how his community has been discriminated on the daily basis. He uses many rhetorical methods

to connect with the readers. Dr. King includes imagery with word choice, cause and effect, as

well as metaphor to justify his reasonings, and to argue the necessity of immediate action

against segregation.

By using imagery as a strategy in his argument, Dr. King conveys the reader to feel the

suffering the black community underwent as well as also exposing the reality of segregation.

King is very specific about the violence on the street that he was exposed to on a daily basis.He

mentions how his community was dehumanized and threatened continuously, and often the

situations were filled with such hate, they would get out of control. When explaining about how

they can no longer keep allowing themselves to be mistreated, King writes:

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say

"wait." But 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, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity (2)
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Here, Martin Luther King Jr. uses phrases such as stinging darts to emphasise the painful

feeling segregation was causing. He then goes on to describe a scene that would be unbearing

for any audience to experience. This form of diction makes the reader imagine a mob acting

grossly immoral toward their own mother and or father. He gives a vivid description of how

police would brutally attack members of the community, even going so far as to kill them. King

engages the reader to have sympathy for the black community, and realize these are real life

situations. The African American community always had to be ready for the worst, never

knowing what to expect, leaving them in a constant state of fear.

King uses the rhetorical device cause and effect to relate Hitlers cruel and unjust laws,

that were considered legal at his time, to the segregation laws that were being placed on African

Americans. He doesnt directly say that the effects of injustice will be monstrous, rather he

implies the message by letting the audience think about the destructive aftermath Hitler caused

by segregating and killing the Jews. In his letter King states, We can never forget that

everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did

in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany (3). Here,

King explains what happens when the people rely on the law without acknowledging their own

morals. His argument here is that if the extreme laws pass without assessing them and really

learning about the morals behind the situation such that what happen in Germany could happen

in America. He directs this passage to those who support law and order without considering the

results. King compares the clergymens actions to those of the Nazis who persecuted Jews

simply because the law protect them. King allows the reader to understand the difference

between conformity and one's own responsibility. By indicating that he himself would have

broken the Nazi laws if he was in that place, King is suggesting to his audience to go against the

segregation laws and stand on the side of justice before it is too late.
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By using metaphor as a strategy in his argument, Dr. King allows his audience to feel

sympathy to the black community. He wants to further more his explanation of all the damages

caused by the inequality of the laws. Dr. King doesnt expose his own personal experience until

he talks about his daughter in the passage where he says:

When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek

to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park

that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes

when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing

clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her

little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people (2)

Here King is very descriptive describing the scene he went through with his daughter. The

audience is able to connect more deeply with Kings argument about how it is necessary to take

action quickly. The audience can imagine in their heads, King stumbling in his own words when

explaining to his little girl about segregation. By writing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her

mental sky, King allows the reader to picture the little kids hopes beginning to shatter, making

the reader feel a sense of guilt and empathy towards what children of color were undergoing.

King explains why he started the civil disobedience and states his argument as to why

the oppressed will not remain oppressed forever and how they plan to fight back to injustice

through his examples of his use of rhetorical devices such as imagery, cause and effect and

metaphor. These devices help with the tone of the letter, reaching out to the audience by

connecting with them in a level where they can feel compassion towards the African American

community but also feel the need to take a part of the action taking place to eliminate the

segregation laws. And also Martin Luther King Jrs Letter from Birmingham Jail is important

because it connects to todays issues that are still unresolved. He is showing his ways of
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resisting to injustice through promoting non violent direct action. This letter shows how some

societies need an awakening from their inequalities and King demonstrates how important it is

to unite as whole nation and fight together for justice.

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Work Cited

King Jr., Martin Luther. Letter From Birmingham Jail. 16 Apr. 1963.