Precis for "Letter from Birmingham Jail

Precis for "Letter from Birmingham Jail

Précis: “Letter from Birmingham Jail”- Martin Luther King Jr.

1. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), a well renown leader of the civil rights movement, in his defensive letter, “A Letter From Birmingham Jail”, to clergymen, who criticized his cause as civil right movement leader “…unwise and untimely.”(King Jr. 371), claims that injustice has seized the civil rights movement and therefore, he is in Birmingham City Jail, “ …I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” (King Jr. 372). King Jr. invokes sympathy, empathy, and love to emphasize his claim, King Jr. states, using Hitler’s actions , that even though something is legal, it does not make it right, “…everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal…”,because most people believe what Hitler did was inhumane and unjust, this example leads the King’s audience to feel that segregation is unjust as well, King also shows that he is not only concerned with his race but he is willing to help anyone at need,“… I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers…” (378) King later states how Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and John Bunyan were extremists because they believed in a free nation. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal." (381), King evokes nationalism and love for one’s country, "Isn't this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-Consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?" (379), King compares Jesus’ cause with his own, in essence, he is stating that the civil-right movement is a God-like event. King intended to defend his organization's actions, and to take the criticism against him and his beliefs and show how they are wrong or incomplete, refutation, “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas” (371). The readers that read King’s letter would, at first glance, believe that King’s intended audience was the clergymen, yet, I believe that King’s letter was an appeal to the people, both...

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