Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Essay on MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail for Philosophy Class

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Margaret Caulkins Philosophy 111 Professor Gandolfo October 17, 2010 Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail Upon Martin Luther King Jr.'s imprisonment in Birmingham, eight white Alabama ministers published a statement arguing that King did not belong in Birmingham, and that the battle to end racial segregation was one that belonged solely in the courtrooms. These ministers considered King's actions "unwise and untimely." Four days after this statement, King responded to this statement with his legendary open letter Letter From Birmingham Jail. King's longest letter argues several issues, though he focuses on a few key issues more than others. His main arguments concern his presence in Birmingham, his arguments for nonviolent civil disobedience, and just versus unjust laws. One of the first points King explains is his presence in Birmingham. King points out his connection with the SCLC, and its affiliation with organizations across the South, including those in Birmingham. ...read more.

Middle

By referencing moral authorities in his arguments, King does present a bit of a contradiction. It's interesting that he feels the need to invoke authority to incite others to go against authority. King then brings up his arguments for nonviolent civil disobedience. He points out that there have been no definitive victories for civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. This nonviolent pressure is only put into action after all other efforts at negotiation have failed. These actions are necessary because a privileged group is unlikely to relinquish their privileges on their own accord; they need to be pushed to see the immorality of their acts. These groups need to be pushed to negotiate. Kings says that "the purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation." King bolsters his argument for civil disobedience with several examples. ...read more.

Conclusion

King argues that "an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." King is saying that by disobeying unjust laws in an attempt to alert the community of their lack of morality and fairness is truly showing the highest respect for the law, by seeking to purify it. The attempt to thwart an unjust law is actually an effort to restore natural law and God's moral order to the body of law as a whole, making the action a just one. This argument does seem to justify actions taken by groups such as the Black Panthers, and other pro-violence civil rights groups. King addresses these claims by adeptly using analogy once again. Most strongly, King argues that this is similar to condemning Jesus. King says that following that logic, Jesus' "unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion." ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our University Degree Philosophy and Theology section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related University Degree Philosophy and Theology essays

  1. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" Speech Aug. 28, 1963

    Taking into consideration the whole issue, one should rethink Whether being a good citizen makes you a good person. They do not involve the same things. We are not obliged to be a good person how ever in every bad person lays a good one with in.

  2. Dear Honourable Judge - creative writing letter from Martin Luther

    I am here to provide a lucid contemplation of my own private life. It is useful for it was full of lessons which would have been useful in strengthening piety in good minds, as well as a recitation of events which could have made known to my descendants about many things.

  1. Kant's Philosophy

    Leibniz in particular, thought that the world was knowable a priori, through an analysis of ideas and derivations done through logic12. Supersensible knowledge, the Rationalists argued, can be achieved by means of reason. Descartes believed that certain truths, that "if I am thinking, I exist," for example, are invulnerable to the most pernicious skepticism.

  2. World Poverty and Human Rights Philosophy Essay. This philosophy essay is critical analysis of ...

    treated the same, or be treated as equals, in some respect" (Arneson, 2009). The difference between these two definitions is emphasis on treatment in the latter definition and the emphasis on expense to other in the former. This essay will draw on this difference throughout in defence of the egalitarian standing of Pogge.

  1. Plato's Republic vs. Locke's 'A letter concerning toleration'

    Plato In The Republic, religion poses a challenge for politics in the form of misguidance from the just way of life and the goal of the perfect city.

  2. THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI

    To combat the terror of tanks, German troops received training on how to defeat them. Where possible, German infantry would wait until the attacking tank had passed, engage the accompanying British infantry, and throw bundles of grenades to disable a tank tread.6 18. The French, British, and (with French equipment)

  1. Nonviolence: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tich Nhat Hanh

    By reducing our enemies to concepts that we can thoughtlessly abhor, we take no serious deliberation concerning our inherent reciprocity to them, and thus fail to realize the true extent our similarities. Though King had expressed similar sentiments previous to this speech, such as in his sermon "Loving your Enemies,"

  2. The Influence of Philosophy in the Roman Empire - A.W.

    but doing so in accordance with inexorable fate which took no thought of the individual as such. God was all in all, for from this ethereal fire which they called God, all things had proceeded : it was continually reducing everything to itself.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work