Letter from Birmingham Jail Paper

4510 Values: Personal and Social
4/25/2013
Letter from Birmingham Jail

The African American movement transpired in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Although, there were many consequences for such rebellion, African Americans still rioted for their freedom. They were harmed and suffered great pain for the march and were even jailed for their acts. Martin Luther King was a strong African American leader who fought for the elevation of segregation. He was jailed and wrote, “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” to the clergymen to address the issues that had came from the African American struggles for freedom. In King’s letter there were several reasons why the clergymen opposed the desegregation movement. One reason was the timing. By this they meant that such a radical transformation of culture should not be rushed. King was frustrated as he waited and pleaded for the “right” time to address these issues. The clergymen see this as nothing more than obeying laws. King thought that the segregation issues had gone on long enough. He said, “Now is the time to make the real promise of democracy, and transform our pending nation elegy into creative psalm of brotherhood.” King believed the wait was over and there would never be a “right” time.
The clergymen make many contradictions within the reading about laws and how segregation is justified by the Christian traditions. MLK addresses some of these contradictions when referring to the “just” and “unjust” laws and how it correlates to segregation. He believed that a law that is “just” is man-made by the law of God. An ‘unjust” law is when a code is out of harmony with the moral law, such as the distortion of other human beings. This brings about an important concept of Immanuel Kant. A law should be universal; therefore, if they were telling African Americans that they had to do this or that, then the “whites” should be doing the same thing. The laws should have applied to everybody. White clergymen often used the Biblical curse of Ham in Genesis to justify the racism and slavery, meaning that the Bible justifies it so they are doing what the Bible says to do. MLK also refers to the Bible to justify what he believed. Anyone who stands up for what they believe in can be called and “extremist”; therefore, when MLK referred to Jesus, Paul and others as extremists, it was a compelling moment in his writing. Christian traditions can be inconsistent with their moral beliefs. For example, Christians disagree with such compulsory evidence of MLK. They often call MLK and his follower’s extremists without saying the same for all throughout time. In past times, Christians practice moral tradition as living through Christ or doing what Christ would do, so if we take all these things into prospective then segregation would have not been considered ethical. As, I have mentioned in a past writing, Christians sometimes follow the rules of society, opposed to the rules of Christ, leading to evil and preposterous principles. As I read the letter written by Martin Luther King, I can’t help to think of the trials that this man went through to fight for what he believed in. He often identifies with the Christian faith; therefore, this is what I think gave him the motivation to fight for their freedom. Although, I disagree with the clergymen, they were more than likely acting upon what they considered politically and socially correct at the time, abiding by the laws. MLK wanted to negotiate with them and offer a settle way of dealing with segregation, but they failed to do so. They broke promises to the African Americans, failing to remove the racial slur signs; therefore, the African Americans did what most Americans do today, fight for what they believe in and didn’t stop until they had positive results.