Monday, April 13, 2015

Letter from Birmingham Jail

After watching the "God in America" documentary, I was interested in MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" so I did a little more research. I found out that he wrote the letter on April 16, 1963. The letter basically explains why the strategy of nonviolent protests are crucial to social reforms. He puts the responsibility to make an impact on the protestors, arguing they exist to show why certain laws are unjust and must be changed. He says that nothing will change if people stand by passively and do nothing to spark a reform movement. 

What's amazing about this specific letter is how relevant it still is today. The fact that Martin Luther King Jr., a well educated and prominent figure chose to go to jail to raise awareness for his cause is truly eye opening. It really makes society today questions the morality of the modern legal system and how similar cases are recurring today, such as police brutality and perhaps innocent people serving time (or worse, being killed). Examples: Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, etc. 

Read the full text of the letter here: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 13, 2015 at 6:14 PM

    Hey Caroline! Thanks for posting this :) I don't know if you're in AP Lang, but we read this in Moul's class earlier in the year (I like how the two classes overlap a lot). Anyway, I like what you said about how, despite its specificity, the letter is still relevant today. I think we (or at least I) look at history as something that was a long time ago, something that may not really affect me now (or at least, that's how I looked at it before being in this class). But this letter is the perfect example of how we have so much to learn from history, not just the facts of what happened, but how to fix similar things now and prevent similar mistakes in the future.

    Here are some of the quotes that stood out to me from the letter:

    "Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue"

    "but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals"

    "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself"

    and finally...
    "[let us hope that] in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty"

    http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

    (Just a note, if you read this, your font is in black. this happened to me too, and i know how frustrating it can be to try to change it :/ )

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  2. UnknownApril 13, 2015 at 7:00 PM

    Thanks for your comment, Julia! Oh, and I'll try to fix the font now...

    ReplyDelete

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