Spike Lee goes histrionic in “Chi-Raq”, a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ Greek play, ‘Lysistrata’, here transferred to a problematic Chicago. It seems that the film didn’t please the Chicagoans who, during two hours, had to watch the women from their city going into a sex strike that aims to stop the local gangsters from shooting one another and kill innocent people in the streets. Through the lame slogan ‘No peace, No pussy!’, a group of women, led by the activist Miss Helen (Angela Bassett), decide to punish the dopey thugs and bring justice to the killing of a little girl who was playing in the surroundings of her home. This coward act shocked the neighborhood, including the lively Lysterata (Teyonah Parris), who becomes a fierce booster of the movement despite being the girlfriend of Demetrius (Nick Cannon), a rapper and violent gang leader, who carries a difficult childhood on his shoulders.…
“I cannot consistently, with self respect, do other than I have, namely, to deliberately violate an act which seems to me to be a denial of everything which ideally and in practice I hold sacred.”. Or maybe, “I regard the principle of conscription of life as a flat contradiction of all our cherished ideals of individual freedom, democratic liberty and Christian teaching.…
Martin Luther King's "A letter from Birmingham jail" was written in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama who seriously criticized King for organization and participation in the protest march against segregation in Birmingham. King's letter was an attempt to defend himself from these accusations and to criticize white heads and moderators of the church. In the begging parts of the letter, Martin Luther King tries to reject the accusation of being an outsider in Birmingham. He also goes against the accusations that the protests where “untimely” by stating several reasons why this was appropriate time for…
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written in 1963; during the time African Americans were fighting for equality among races. We can tell this by the vocabulary used in his writing such as “Negro,” which was used at one time, and is no longer considered, “politically correct. “ The purpose for the letter is that Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to convince the white clergymen that him and his “People’s” actions were completely unnecessary for the situation. When doing this, he uses critical and persuasive tones to try to influence the reader to agree with him. Martin Luther King Jr. provides a valid argument using logos, pathos, and ethos throughout his letter.…
“Letter from Birmingham Jail: April 16, 1963” was written by Dr. Martin Luther King in response to published statements denouncing his non-violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The article, composed on scraps of paper, in the margins of the newspaper and finally on writing pads (King, 1963) by Dr. King as he was incarcerated in Birmingham City Jail for participating in a series of non-violent protests, known as the Birmingham Campaign. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered“the most important written document of the modern civil rights movement and a classic text on civil disobedience”, primarily due to King’s impassioned defense of his confrontational tactics. (Bass, 2001 )…
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…
Little did they know that in the same basement was a bomb set to go off at the same time the ceremony would begin. In the videos watch in class it is learned that the church received a phone call prior to the bomb that seemed like nonsense but would soon be seen as a warning. Three minutes after the call the bomb was detonated and took the lives of four girls and injured another twenty. In the poem Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall writes so it is read as a conversation would sound. The poem starts with a child asking to go march and a mother pretty much saying no you can not do that it is too dangerous after that option is shot down the child argues that it is okay because they will not be alone again the mother says no but this time she offers to let her daughter attend church. In the next two stanza the reader gets a visual of a little African American girl cleaned and groomed dressed to attend church with her mother smiling and willingly letting the daughter go to Church. But just like that Dudley Randall drops a bomb and flips the poem around now instead of smiling and feeling as though her daughter is safe the reader can visualize a mother digging through the rubbage, calling for her daughter, with no answer and the only thing left of that…
On April 3rd, 1963, the Birmingham campaign began and people were protesting against racism and injustice. The non-violent campaign was coordinated by King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. However, King was roughly arrested with other main leaders of the campaign on April 12th for disobeying the rules of “no parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing”. While jailed, King read a letter (“A call for unity”) written by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods from the newspaper. In the letter, the clergymen stated that the campaign were "directed and led in part by outsiders," urging activists to use the courts if rights were being denied rather than to protest. The letter provoked King and “the Letter from Birmingham jail” was a written response to the white clergy men and to defend the strategy of non-violent protesting. Throughout the letter, King used many stylistic writing elements and effective emotional appealing to make people want to join his case.…
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. produced many literary works that have maintained lasting impressions on their readers, his piece called “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” is no different. This letter was written as a response to another letter, titled “A Call for Unity,” which was written by eight clergymen on April 12, 1963 and criticized Dr. King’s protest as being untimely. The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but that they should be settled through the judicial system and not in an “untimely” manner on the streets. “Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk,…I would have no time for constructive work.”(pg.1) Dr.…
Every Individual comes to a point in their life when he or she must take a stand for what he or she believes in. For some, this may mean coming to the defense of other people, for others taking a stand could mean holding firm to beliefs or morals. In any case taking a stand is part of the human experience. Realizations, reformations, revelations, and revolutions have been brought forth in history because a dauntless individual stood firm for what he or she held to be true.…
The early 1960s was an era of change in the United States. African-Americans led a campaign, known as the civil rights movement, to gain the freedoms and rights they had been unjustly denied. One of the leaders of the movement was Martin Luther King Jr., a Georgian minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He traveled the nation to help lead nonviolent protests and fight discrimination. King's toughest challenge came in Birmingham, Alabama, where the movement was forcefully put down by the local government. In April 1963, King was arrested in Birmingham for leading the protests. While serving his sentence, he responded to a local letter published by Alabama clergymen in the newspaper. In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," King explains what the civil rights movement stands for, what injustices African-Americans face, and why their actions are justified. To achieve his purpose, King eloquently organizes his letter, employs numerous rhetorical devices, and uses logos, pathos, and ethos. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is an incredible literary and historical work,…
King spent eight days in his cell. During that time he composed his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." The letter was ostensibly conceived in response to a letter that had recently run in a local newspaper, which had claimed that the protests were "unwise and untimely"; however, King also quite deliberately wrote his letter for a national audience. The letter reveals King's strength as a rhetorician and his breadth of learning. It alludes to numerous secular thinkers, as well as to the Bible. It is passionate and controlled, and was subsequently appropriated by many writing textbooks as a model of persuasive writing. At the time, it gave a singular, eloquent voice to a massive, jumbled movement.…
In a "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, King addresses the issue of inequality of citizens in existence in American society and the need for moral responsibility regarding human dignity. The issues of inequality addressed by King in his letter are still prominent in American society today; no longer mandated by law, but by the mere existence of custom and racism.…
While learning about this time period in high school, not once did it ever occur to me that that these black activists could inflict harm on those who attacked them as a form of self defense. While reading Negroes with Guns, I was absolutely blown away by the fact that there were groups of people who were raising guns to police officers and members of mobs. I believe that I never once thought that the black man could shoot back because I unconsciously knew, before even thinking about it, that the second amendment did not and still does not apply to us.…
The problem for our country is that the majority of orphans still live in traditional orphanages and therefore cannot feel happy. Orphanages, which we are accustomed to see, represent old buildings, often in poor conditions. Children, who live there, need a lot of things, both material and spiritual. Some people try to help them by bringing clothes, toys, different presents and some other necessary things. Unfortunately, it…