Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Link to Disgustingly Long Letter

Who goes there! -peers into abyss-

Potential Essay Questions

To-Do:

• Define white moderates, religious leaders.
• "Extremist" section— define black moderate, fix black revolutionist.
• Compare with Declaration of Independence.

How does King respond to the charge of being an "outsider"?

1. He was invited.
2. He has organizational ties in Birmingham.
3. He is in Birmingham because "injustice is here".
4. "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."
   • "Anyone" includes immigrants, foreigners, etc.

What are the 4 basic steps to a nonviolent campaign?

1. collection of the facts to determine whether nonviolence exists
2. negotiation
3. self-purification
4. direct action

What is the goal of a nonviolent campaign? What is the 5th step?

If direct action does not effect the desired change, we should cycle back to negotiation.

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

Why is Birmingham a center of social injustice?

1. most segregated city in the United States
2. ugly record of brutality
3. gross unjust treatment in the courts
4. more unsolved bombings of black homes and churches than any other city in the nation

What is an "unjust law", and what is a "just law"?

just law

a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.

unjust law

a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself.

How can a law be both just and unjust?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. …An ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

EXAMPLE
Just: A permit is required for a parade.
Unjust: A permit is denied on the basis of difference in thought or belief, or simply on race.

How does King respond to the label of "extremist"?

1. Nonviolent methods are not extreme, stupid.
2. King stands between two groups of people in the black community, reflecting the stance of a moderate rather than an extremist.
   • complacency: Blacks who are weakened as a result of many years of oppression. They are middle class, more adjusted to society than their ancestors, have obtained some economic and academic security and therefore in a sense believe that their conditions are already improving.
   • anger: Racial discrimination is clear to them; they have lost faith in America's ability to create the supposed equality they espouse, have concluded that the white man is absolute evil, and, often considering themselves revolutionists, resort to violence.
3. If nonviolent action is dismissed as only trouble and "rabble-rousing", millions of blacks will eventually swing to the violent end of the spectrum and create much more trouble than King does.
4. Many people who were considered extremists in their time have been portrayed by history as people who were great, influencing thoughts and inciting social change. (ex: Jesus, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, etc)

Which two groups of people are King most disappointed in?

Church Leaders

1. Say that the church is supposed to help the soul, not the body, but your body and soul are kind of connected.

The White Moderate

How is King's letter similar to the Declaration of Independence?

1. Thesis; purpose for writing
2. Reinforce the idea of "duty to act"
3. Facts and Evidence
4. Call for negotiations…negotiations fail
5. Direct Action
6. Signed and published

Vocabulary

cognizant

aware; fully informed; conscious

appraisal

a judgement or assessment of the value of something.

gadfly

a fly of various species; bloodsucker

affluent

someone who is wealthy; abundant, copious

harry

v. to bother; to trouble

sublimely

completely

precipitate

To make something happen suddenly and quickly; hasten.

hemlock

Any of several poisonous umbelliferous plants, of the genera Conium and Cicuta; the poison obtained from these plants.

elegy

mournful, plaintive song or poem.

stagnation

inactivity

inextricable

impossible to solve

vitality

energy or vigour

understate

to state something with less completeness than needed; to minimise or downplay.