Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Essay Example

In August of 1963 and while confined to a jail cell in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a long and detailed letter to eight white religious leaders who had previously condemned him for his involvement in non-violent demonstrations against segregation laws in the Deep South, especially the so-called “Jim Crow” laws that had segregated African-Americans from white society, thus making them second-class citizens without the same basic rights. In this letter, Dr. King utilizes several different approaches as a means of appealing to the concerns and fears of the eight white religious leaders. Personally, I feel that the most powerful and effective of these approaches or modes of communication is the application of logos or logic and common sense as opposed to pathos or human emotion and ethos or ethical thought and/or behavior.

The first example of the application of logos appears in the 4th paragraph when Dr. King observes that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. . . Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” (King, 1). With this statement, Dr. King is attempting to appeal to his audience’s sense of reasoning via a comparison between two independent thoughts or ideas, being that justice cannot exist alongside injustice, and that an unjust event not only affects the individual but also society at large.

Dr. King then proceeds to utilize a sort of philosophical or logical syllogism by pointing out the four basic steps of a non-violent campaign–“collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action” (King, 1). These specific steps were obviously well thought-out by Dr. King far in advance of his protest movement against racial injustice and segregation in the Deep South. Dr. King also provides justification for his non-violent campaign by mentioning in logical order 1), the basic facts that “racial injustice engulfs (the) community” of Birmingham; 2), the existence of failed negotiations with the city fathers and with certain political leaders who “refused to engage in good-faith negotiations;” 3), that certain promises had been broken which led to “self-purification” via asking if one is able to “accept blows without retaliating” and if the “ordeal of jail” can be personally accepted; and 4), direct action in the form of sit-ins, marches, and appealing to the common decency of city fathers and city officials, all of whom just happened to be white (King, 1-2).

Dr. King then addresses the anxiety of the eight white religious leaders related to breaking the law. “One may well ask,” writes Dr. King, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” Once again, Dr. King utilizes a comparison between two independent ideas by declaring that there are just laws and unjust laws, a sort of balancing act between a positive and a negative. Dr. King goes so far as to quote the religious philosopher St. Augustine–“An unjust law is no law at all,” and then paraphrases other philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas with “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.” Dr. King sums up this portion of his argument by asking “Isn’t segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation?” with the term “existential” firmly rooted in the history of logical thinking via French philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre (King, 3).

Dr. King continues his use of logic and reasoning by mentioning that he was arrested in the city of Birmingham for “parading without a permit,” a reference to his protests on the streets of the city. While Dr. King admits that an ordinance or law that forbids parading without a permit is sound and totally legal, he quickly upends his argument by noting that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for peaceful assembly and protesting; therefore, the law that forbids parading without a permit is unjust or illogical, especially when it is “used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens” their right to self-expression (King, 3).

Dr. King then applies perhaps the best example of logic and reasoning by addressing the statement made by the eight white religious leaders which condemned his non-violent protests, due to believing that they lead to violence. “But can this assertion be logically made?” asks Dr. King. “Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth. . . precipitated the misguided popular mind to make him drink the hemlock?” “Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-consciousness. . . precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?” (King, 3). Certainly, these comparisons must have caused the eight white religious leaders to sit down and think about their initial condemnation of King and his civil rights movement. After all, it is not logical to condemn someone like Jesus Christ simply because his actions resulted in his own death.

Lastly, Dr. King points out that despite his use of logic and reasoning, especially concerning his failed negotiations with the city fathers of Birmingham, that he might have been “too optimistic” and “expected too much” (King, 4) from these individuals who clearly did not understand the power of logical thought. Overall, what I personally admire about this letter is its demonstration of Dr. King’s intelligence and how his application of logic and reasoning can be useful even under the most extreme conditions, considering that Dr. King was sitting in a cramped and cold jail cell while contemplating what to say to those who condemned his peaceful actions to rid Birmingham of injustice and segregation.

Works Cited

King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” 2012. Web. Accessed 9 October 2012. http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/letter_birmingham_jail.pdf