Example Of Martin Luther King’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” Essay

Dr. Martin Luther King’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is a seminal document that marked a rift between the non-violent and militant paradigms in the Civil Rights Movement, as he focused his social justice movement for racial progress on nonviolent and direct action. As such, nonviolence in public spaces was the way King envisioned the procurement of civil rights. Birmingham ultimately became the fulcrum of the civil rights movement, wedged between the non-violent and peaceful phase and a more radicalized one in which King called for student and civil rights leaders alike to engage in confrontational modes of protest so that the true, unfeigned evils of racism so prevalent in the U.S. was exposed to the international community. As one of the most famous written documents in the modern U.S. history, King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” underscores the critical role that public protesting played in procuring African-Americans and other subaltern groups the protection of their civil rights. While it marked a rift in the rhetoric King deployed, the letter nonetheless provides one of the best and clearest justification of non-violent tactics.
Scholars have lauded King’s letter as one of the most clearly articulated, eloquent, and morally potent written documents that signified a paradigm shift from prior modes of protest 1963 was a tumultuous year in which the public attention in the U.S. was oriented towards Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King and his followers focused on Birmingham and participated in a litany of demonstrations in public in order to force the city to eradicate its segregation ordinances. King's nonviolence campaign had gained some traction in the fight for civil rights, but the events that took place in Birmingham functioned as a significant turning point in the Civil Rights Movement that ultimately laid the groundwork for the deconstruction and dismantling of de facto segregation in the Deep South. King effectively harnessed the power of the television by calling on black college students and youth to take to the streets—a tactic required in confrontational politics rather than politics of supplication--in order to publically expose to the world the violent antagonism fueled by racial hostilities. Indeed, Birmingham commissioner Eugene "Bull" Conner" was unapologetically racist and thus determined to preserve the traditional racial status quo and maintain white hegemony vis-à-vis exceedingly violent means. Connor mandated that the protestors be ferociously arrested, harassed and treated brutally by getting hosed with fire hoses or attacked by canine police dogs. Such shocking and savage scenes were shown on the television and circulated in the press on a national and global scale.
Amidst the Birmingham campaign, King was almost immediately arrested and incarcerated for disturbing the peace, which violated an injunction that had been passed by a state court. His apprehension marked the thirteenth time he was incarcerated while fighting for and defending the civil rights and liberties of subaltern peoples vis-à-vis peaceful and nonviolent means. Shipped off to solitary confinement, Dr. King despaired in private that his civil rights movement was almost completely defeated. Within this context, King penned his famous letter in secret, which articulated his political philosophy based on nonviolent and direct action. Moreover, he eloquently articulated his dream of social justice and racial harmony for all African Americans. The letter remains the best and most clearly written exposition of Dr. King’s goals and methods of the mainstream civil rights movement campaign, which galvanized more sympathizers to support movement. The letter marked a paradigm shift and a turning point in the trajectory of the mainstream civil rights movement because of the global attention it elicited, which galvanized a much larger audience in support of King. Without Birmingham, King asserted, the 1963 march on Washington would never had taken place.
Written in response to the racist treatises authored by white clergymen in Alabama entitled "An Appeal for law and Order and Common Sense," which mandated that African American students and civil rights leaders stop participating in public protests and demonstrations, King's letter debunked the notion and discursive positioning of himself and the civil rights protestors by the white clergyman as merely peripheral. King was bothered by the fact that the clergymen—who were purportedly sincere men of good will—misunderstood and skewed his mission and the general intent of the civil rights movement in general. Moreover, the increasing attention that the events in Birmingham garnered convinced Dr. King make a convincing case for social justice and civil rights to nation at large through a letter. Dr. King responded to the blatantly ignorant sentiments articulated by the white clergymen in Birmingham that had been published and circulated in the media at the micro and macro levels. While King organized his cognitions in preparation to write his letter, he remained cognizant of the slow, frustrating, and stilted progress the civil rights movement had made. His decision to be arrested and incarcerated marked a significant turning point in his career as a civil rights leader.
King wrote in his letter that African Americans must "emulate neither the do-nothingism of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist" ("King, "Letter From Birmingham"). He further insisted that "there is a more excellent way of love and non-violent protest," and, "if this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the south would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood.” King had hitherto spoken out against the virulence, despair, and hatred that inhered violent actions that the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, and Malcolm supported. However, the dialogue between Dr. King and Malcolm X indicates that the dyadic approach to and interpretation of the Civil Rights movement is reductive because it elides the nuances and complexities of civil rights paradigms. King completely understood the significance of racial pride in the struggle to subvert and deconstruct white hegemony. Through this letter, King admitted that nonviolent approaches to civil rights did not offer the same possibilities that more violent methodologies did.
Preconceived ideas about and renderings of Martin Luther King in the fight for African-American liberation must be reassessed in order to take into account the nuances and complexities revealed in King’s public and private life. King eventually resigned to the reality and notion that competing visions of racial justice indeed be compatible in the fight for social and economic justice and egalitarianism. As one of the most poignant and clearly articulated propagation of nonviolence as a political strategy, King embraced the concept of satyagraha touted by Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi, which used love as a mechanism to dismantle white supremacy and racial antagonisms. Birmingham emerged as a fruitful sight for King to harness the power of the television in order to expose the virulent racism in the U.S. despite touting liberty and equality as the nation’s founding pillars. Scenes of racially-motivated violence and brutality incurred the ire and condemnation of the international community within the turbulent context of the Cold War. The civil rights campaign in Birmingham bolstered Dr. King’s reputation as a venerable political and moral leader of the Civil Rights Movement during the tumultuous1960s. Civil rights unequivocally were transformed into a national security concern. Despite the fact that Dr. King was not the first leader to advocate nonviolence as a viable political philosophy, he nonetheless was a path-breaker because he was able to apply it successfully on a large scale that had revolutionary ramifications.

Works Cited

Carson, Clayborne. "The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X." OAH Magazine of History, vol. 19.1(2005): 22-26. Print.
Golson, G. Barry. The Playboy Interview. Widebook Books, 1981. Print.
Kelley, Robin D. G. To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
Kelly, Robert. "Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X: A Common Solution." OAH Magazine of History 19.1(2005): 37-40. Print.
King, Martin Luther. "Letter From Birmingham Jail." Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.uscrossier.org/pullias/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/king.pdf>.
Rieder, Jonathan. Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation. Dexter: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.