Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary

Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, responds forcefully yet politely to a public statement made by eight Alabama clergymen in 1963. He defends his position as an African American and strongly defends racial equality, referencing countless sources and utilizing several literary devices. Most significantly, King uses frequent Biblical allusions and metaphors, not only to relate to the Clergymen and the people of Alabama, but also to display his passion for equality. For instance, when he speaks of just and unjust laws, he references the reasoning of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "To put in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any laws that degrades human personality is unjust"(King 180). King cites the book of Daniel when he discusses Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the disobedience of a law for higher moral principle. King also relates himself to the Apostle Paul and his thriving effort to assist the men and women who call for his
handpicked these events in Biblical history to more clearly represent what he is writing about and why he is so avidly defending his cause. He argues against repression and urges the public to defend their rights and resist the rut of conformity. Just reading Letter from Birmingham Jail won 't do it justice. Further researching the components of this letter have opened my eyes to what King was really portraying. King is pleading with the Clergymen to reconsider their prejudice against him and his beliefs. He is driving the public to become like him, and to become like Paul stating that it is ok to be persecuted for your beliefs. He makes clear in hismessage that it will not be an easy task but it must be done in order to create an influential change in society. This change must be done now so that it can display its longstanding effects on the generations to