Dr.King’s letter from the Birmingham Jail was very inspiring. The statement that meant the most to me was when he wrote “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because in justice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and, just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town.” This statement meant a lot to me because he is explaining why he is where he is and why he is doing what he is doing. He believes that what he is doing is as important as what the prophets and Paul did. I agree with him, which is why this was my favorite quote from his letter. It has a big impact me and I think it does on whoever else reads it. Reading the clergy letter helps because it gives you some background on the reason Dr.King is writing his letter. It gives you something to go off of to help you understand Dr.King’s response. What stands out to me from the clergy’s letter was the statement “We appeal to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of laws and order and common sense.” This both stands out and appalls me. The reason for Dr.King’s whole movement and being is to change the wrong laws and to change what is happening. The clergy is appealing to common sense which for most people is different. Common sense for some is that all blacks are lower than the whites, which is what Dr.King is trying to change. I think that what Dr.King did was right and he helped us become what we are today.
Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced to jail many times in his life. The one time that people remember the most was his time in Birmingham City Jail, where he wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, which put out an important statement about civil rights and civil disobedience. He was sentenced to jail on April 16, 1963 during a peaceful protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama He was put into solitary confinement through this whole sentence, which was about 11 days. He started writing right when he could. He didn’t even have a pad of paper. He has to write in the margins of a newspaper, scraps of paper that was supplied by a friendly Negro, toilet paper, and eventually a pad of paper that his attorneys were allowed to leave him. He was let out of jail after 11 days. The letter he wrote was one of the most amazing and inspiring letters written in a jail cell.
Being put in jail for what Dr. King believed in was the physical statement that went with written words. I think it brought more credence to his civil movement.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King even says in his letter that he doesn't usually respond to his criticism so who knows if he wasn't put in jail and didn't have so much time on his hands he might not have wrote this letter back to them, at least not so thorough in what he was thinking at the time.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how dedicated he was. that he would write a letter on scraps, not even knowing what was about to happen in the future.
ReplyDeleteI really like how dedicated he was to what he believed in, and writing a story while in jail, that's amazing!
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