Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary

439 Words2 Pages
The Letter From Birmingham jail was written by Martin Luther King Jr. to explain why the protest in his time is happeninng as well as why he was sentenced to jail. He claimed to have gone to Birmingham jail because injustice was there and he was there to fight it. He said he can't just fight one place, Altanta but he has to fight the whole south, which is why he is in Birmingham. The negro leaders tried to negotiate but the latter refused and even if they did the negros would just become the victims of a broken promise. For example, they negotiated to remove racist signs, some signs were drop for a few weeks all the while the other remains. This has led them to take direct actions, as they went through a process of “self-purification”. Creating workshops to ready themselves to work nonviolently and…show more content…
Martin Luther then explains that their direct action or protests are to create negotiations. He belives that negotiations cannot happen unless they create a situation in which a “crisis “ or “tension” forces the unwilling party to cooperate and negotiate in good faith. He then speaks of how they need to legal and nonviolent pressure in order to gain rights. He states that blacks have waited more than 340 years for their rights and he then speaks of the hardship this people have faced when they try to explain why their younger daughters and son cant't go to a public amusement park, as their “cup of endurance” has run out and his people is no longer willing to live in the “abyss of despair”. He then hopes that the clergyman while excuse their impatience. He then talks about just and unjust laws, just laws that uplifts personality and unjust laws that degrades personality. He believes that everyone who breaks an unjust law must do so with honor and be willing to accept penalty. The one who breaks these laws to gain the community attendtion over its injustice, is expressing the highest respect for the laws. He next addresses that he is disappointed in his white
Open Document