Letter from Birmingham Jail (Zora)

While reading a "Letter from Birmingham Jail" I found a different insight to the civil rights movement. From the reading, it is easy to tell that Dr. King is responding to white church men who criticize his efforts against segregation. Dr. King's detailed descriptions of how protests and sit-ins were planned, his constant use of the rhetorical devices, and his denouncing of the white moderates and church are a few of the things about this letter that I found the most enticing.

     Before reading a "Letter from Birmingham Jail", I had not known of the amount of planning and organizing that went into protests and "direct action". Dr. King describes the four basic steps of campaign involvement: collecting facts, negotiating, self-purification, and direct action. He makes note that the white clergymen believe that he and the other black people are not being patient, are breaking laws, and are causing civic disruption. He describes the importance of negotiating and that in recent times, it has always failed. Therefore, they move on to direct action.

  Early in the letter, he states "Injustice anywhere is a threat to a justice everywhere (1)".  One of the other interesting themes expressed in the letter was the racism that triumphs Alabama and specifically the city of Birmingham. Being from the South, I think it is safe to say that we have grown up knowing that Alabama was one of the racist, if not the most racist, states in our country. But every time I learn about it, I am still shocked. Dr. King writes about the Negroes not being registered to vote, the lynchings of his black brothers and sisters, and the racism that infiltrates their justice system. He then uses pathos to engage the reader by writing about having to explain to his children why whites don't like blacks and why they are not allowed to go to amusement parks due to the color of their skin.

  The white clergyman exclaimed that the protesters were causing civic disruption and therefore should be labeled extremists. Dr. King refutes this by speaking on behalf of the non-violent protests and then writing "Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?". He uses historical examples such as Jesus, Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson to convey his point. This idea of being an extremist for love provided me with a different outlook on all types of protests as I am sure it did for the white men who were reading this at the time.

   Lastly, Dr. King's criticism of both the white moderates and the church provided me with a clearer view of the civil rights era. He expresses anger with the white moderates who agree that segregation is wrong but think that "now" is the wrong "time". He writes, "who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season" (4)". As it did to Dr. King, the white moderates also angered me more than the direct racists. He later expresses how the church has not helped in there efforts to obtain freedom from segregation.

I hope to discuss more about the church's poor effort in fighting for the rights of blacks, the racism in Birmingham, the white moderates,  and the aftermaths and effects of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail".