A Letter from Birmingham Jail" was penned as a response to a letter that criticized Martin Luther King Jr. written by eight high ranking clergymen. Although King's letter was addressed as a reply to these clergymen, the real audience was the "white moderate" - otherwise known as middle class America (King et al 106). By gaining the support of this majority group, King knew that the civil rights movement could achieve its goals of removing the illegal segregation practices that were still in place in the south during the nineteen sixties much faster. In his letter King goes through the list of charges made against him by these religious figures and takes issues with their main points. King's reply was eloquently written, made use of many methods of development and dealt with a very emotionally charged issue in a predominately logical manner. The letter is without doubt a very powerful piece of prose but its effectiveness is compromised by one unfortunately underlying fault - ethical......
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Approximate Word Count: 590
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |