Letter from Birmingham City Jail Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. and Racial Injustices in Birmingham

Martin Luther King, Jr., while imprisoned in the Birmingham City Jail, penned a lengthy letter in response to the eight white pastors regarding his presence and actions in Birmingham, Alabama. The most significant and pervasive wound to the United States at this time was race segregation and injustice. King, a member of the black race, was at the forefront of denouncing racial injustices that had marred the United States. He respected negotiation as a means of resolving conflicts, but in some cases, when negotiations failed, he turned to peaceful street protests and demos. In this case, in Birmingham, police brutality against the blacks, court discriminations, as well as political and social segregations, were the order of the day for blacks (Apsel 230). In that case, King was forced to lead various demonstrations in the city of Birmingham that led to his arrest. Ironically, his fellow white clergymen termed King’s action unruly and questioned his presence in Birmingham. Apparently, King was in Birmingham as a United States citizen and as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that fostered equity for all Americans in the Southern States including Birmingham.

Racial Justice: A Global Problem

Globally, the letter was written to ensure racial justice for all American. King states that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. In that case, King wants the clergymen to understand that racial prejudice is a global problem that requires everyone’s effort to eradicate. In the letter, King notes various economic discrimination methods used against the blacks. For instance, racial signs that humiliate blacks were stuck in the stores, and blacks were prohibited from sleeping in motels due to their color (Apsel 256). These treatments were meant to sabotage the blacks economically and to separate them from public and social places such as motels and shops. Additionally, Blacks were called several abusive names such as ’nigger\“ to tint their personalities, as bad people in the society. In that connection, this social segregation led to numerous extrajudicial killing of the blacks. Some were killed mistakenly, and the courts never listen to them as heavy penalties were issued to blacks against small cases. Politically, the letter shows that there were few blacks representatives in political positions; hence, in many instances, these brutalities against blacks go uninvestigated. From this letter addressed to the white clergymen, it is clear that King’s actions and presence in Birmingham were well intended to benefit not only the discriminated blacks but also the entire American citizens. Letter From the Birmingham City Jail was the best reply to the Call For Unity article and showed the hypocritical nature of the white clergymen.

Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources refer to the sources of raw information; that is, directly from the owner of the information while the secondary source is the sources that record the information for the third party. Apparently, while recording the raw information, various alterations can be made to the primary information to fit the available space and interpreters’ perceptions leading to the loss of vital information. Hence, primary sources of data are firsthand information, which is accurate and unbiased compared secondary sources, which may be biased to fit the author’s perceptions or needs. In this case, the Letter From Birmingham City Jail is a primary source while the America Textbook is a secondary source. Comparatively, in the Letter From Birmingham City Jail King responds vividly to his critics citing various reasons for his presence in Birmingham and his cause of action, while in the America Textbook interpretation, the authors have written the king’s letter to as per their perceptions. In fact, the letter was never sent to all eight clergies and instead was used by the movement for public relations purposes (Bass np.). Therefore, for a freshman survey, the primary source is the best source of information or data to complete a survey, as it gives accurate, unbiased and comprehensive information regarding the focus study.

Ethical Decision-Making: Martin Luther King’s Actions

By definition, ethical decision-making refers to the process of evaluating and choosing the best ethical alternative among various alternatives and acting about moral principles. Besides, one is required to examine the possible consequences of the viable options when chosen and acted. Collectively, in making an ethical decision, one has to consider all the available alternatives and their consequences choose the best choice before acting. For instance, in this case, Martin Luther was under heavy criticism from his fellow clergymen for his actions and decision regarding the racial injustices in Birmingham. The clergymen believe that King would have deployed diplomatic action rather than demonstrations. Personally, King made the best decision in engaging in the demonstration, as earlier negotiations with the economic community and the political leaders to eradicate racism had proved futile. Despite knowing that public demonstrations had been outlawed in Alabaman state, he continued with the demonstrations. Effectively, this was the best option for keeping negotiation and waiting were just worsening the situation.

The Lasting Impact of the Letter

Since its release in 1963, the letter has remained as powerful political literature and has been cited by various civil rights movements while fighting for the rights of the citizens, for instance, in 1980, Desmond Tutu quoted the letter amidst cries to release Nelson Mandela from Jail (Raboteau np.). Today, blacks and whites communicate and engage freely in the United States, even though there are minor traces of racism activities. Effectively, from the letter, the government has implemented various policies to curb race discriminations.

Works Cited

Apsel, Joyce. ”Martin Luther King, Jr.,“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and Nonviolent Social Transformation.“ Great Books Written in Prison: Essays on Classic Works from Plato to Martin Luther King, Jr. (2015): 230.

Bass, S. Jonathan. Blessed are the peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., eight white religious leaders, and the” Letter from Birmingham Jail“. LSU Press, 2001.

Raboteau, Albert J. ”Birmingham on My Mind.“ Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize: Birmingham Mass Meeting Rhetoric and the Prophetic Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017.

Shapiro, Joan Poliner, Jacqueline A. Stefkovich, and Kathrine J. Gutierrez. ”Ethical decision making.“ Handbook of ethical educational leadership (2014): 210-228.