Summary Response essay

Summary Response essay

The Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King, Jr. is a call to arms of sorts for not only the people that King mentions in the letter but everyone one in the United States at the time to stop being bystanders and to take action to truly make a difference in the lives of all African Americans. This was an important for that time to help the suffering of the African Americans but this could also be said about any cause now so it shows that the United States is making some of the same mistakes that they made 50 years ago. King is arguing that people in the United States know that what is going in the southern united states to African Americans is wrong and they are doing nothing about it because they do not want to create tension but King says that they are causing the tension because they are not doing the thing that they know is right.

King plays on the reader’s emotions through out the essay. He language and rhetoric has passion that comes jumping out of every page. King uses the pronoun “you” and it seems like he is actually talking to the reader. So when he says “When you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity.” (281 King) it can feel as though you are personally reasonable for allowing this to happen.  The language is controlled but yet aggressive. He is attacking the reader’s emotions by making you empathize with the struggles of African Americans of that time period. “When your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are), and your last name becomes “John” and your wife and mother are never the respected title of “Mrs.” (282 King) The whole third paragraph just pulls at your heartstrings with the stories and horrible examples he uses really makes the letter strong.  He uses these examples all to get to the people he really wants to target and that is the people that know and understand that this blatant mistreatment of all African American people but would prefer that it be peaceful than having to protest to make a difference.

King then starts to focus on his next point, religion. King uses religion because it is obviously something that he knows very well and was passionate in believing.  He talks about the people that are religious and know that there are crimes being commented against the Afro-American people but are not doing anything about the injustices that are occurring. He argues against the idea that it is better to be peaceful and not protest than to have peaceful protests because it is causing “tension”. “We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive” (283 King) He also uses the actions of Jesus to represent what is going on in the present by calling him an extremist for peace and love and he compares himself to this idea of preaching for love and peace. Overall King uses all of his different arguments and his rhetoric to stop people from being so passive and to actually make a difference in there own community no matter if there is tension created, if leader is considered an “extremist”, or if you know religiously you can’t support the ideas of hate; you should do and act on what you know and what you feel is the right thing to do.

The ideas used in the letter from Birmingham Jail are still applicable today because King did not create this idea. The Ideas of letter from Birmingham Jail are inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience,which argues against slavery and the Mexican American war. King was also inspired by Gandhi, another no violent protester, so I just shows that the ideas that Dr. King is preaching is important to any cause. King is just saying these things for the rights of African Americans, but these can easily relate to gay rights, peace in the middle east, and equality for women. King states the most important things that need to be done to get things done, to not be a bystander to obvious injustices, and to take action because things will not get done if you think that things will just figure themselves out.  Letter from Birmingham Jail is just a template for all injustices there are all across the globe.

The way King argues and use peoples emotions really shows that he had a lot of passion on what was going on and what was happening to black people. It just goes to show if your passionate about something you know is right, if you do something about it things will change. This was written in 1963, the civil rights act was passed in 1964. This was a huge step and lots of people read this did think that they are the bystanders that King was talking about and they made a difference in civil rights.

King did not write this Letter to fame or to put his name out there, King writes this letter because he truly believes in every word that he says and that the world as a whole can change. Kings message to those who are just avoiding conflict is that of passion and haste. He wants people to get evolved and as fast as possible. The letter obviously made a difference due to the fact that after writing the letter the civil rights act was passed the following year. Kings message of acting on what you know is wrong is can be used even today with modern problems.