Analysis Essay: Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The treatment of Black people throughout America is a clear representation of the injustice that consumes our nation. Fighting for our God-given and constitutional rights isn’t something any American should ever have had to do, but in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama this was a day-to-day struggle for Black Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. felt so distressed about the injustice that was happening in Birmingham, he decided to write a letter to clergymen, newspapers, white people, and more responding to the clergymen’s criticisms and discussing what was going on in Birmingham. In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tells Americans in 1963 how injustice is present in Birmingham, by alluding to how he is similar to the Apostle Paul, he also repeats phrases and words in order to put the reader in the shoes of Black Americans during that time, and he compares the injustice to things white Americans can see and feel since they don’t know how it feels to be treated like a Black American, to fight against the injustices Black Americans face every day ultimately moving the White moderates to help fight against the injustices Black Americans face. 

Dr. King begins by alluding to how he is similar to the Apostle Paul in order to connect with his audience since he is also a clergyman he shows that he knows his Bible. Take for example, in the third paragraph when he states “... just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town” (King 3). He is similar to the Apostle because he wants to help others who are in need of it and will go far and wide to do so. Just as the Apostle Paul left his village and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are both leaving their homes in order to help others find faith and hope in the world. Furthermore, Dr. King states, “Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid” (King 3). By explaining what the Apostle Paul did he is able to relate to the clergymen because they all know their Bible, also he tells people who may not know about the Apostle Paul what he did and how they are similar. This is important in that he is letting each and every reader know what he is talking about and why it is important to the letter. Also, by comparing himself to an Apostle who helps people in need of it, he seems trustworthy to the reader. He is similar to him because he wants to help others who are in need of it and will go far and wide to do so. Just as the Apostle Paul left his village and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are both leaving their homes in order to help others find faith and hope in the world. Additionally, Dr. King goes on to state, “Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”...So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or love?” (King 24). Dr. King is now giving them the opportunity to choose who and what they want to support but is also letting them know that Paul chose to be a good extremist and so should they. Just as Paul spread the word of Jesus, the white moderates should choose to spread the word of inequality amongst the Black population in America. All of this would move the clergymen and white moderates to understand that inequality is present in Birmingham and confront the injustices faced by Black Americans because the allusion to the Apostle Paul makes Dr. King’s mission to end segregation a divine mission.

White moderates have no idea what it is and was like to be a Black American, so Dr. King used his writing to put them in the shoes of the Black Americans. For instance, in paragraph twelve when Dr. King states, “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation” (King 12). Before Dr. King puts the White moderates in the shoes of Black Americans; he wants them to know that they will never go through what Black Americans do. He wants them to know that they will never understand what the feeling of segregation does to people. He also wants the White moderates to realize that this is the closest they will get to knowing what segregation and injustice feels like. Dr. King goes on to say, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children…”(King 12). Dr. King repeats the words “when you” to emphasize his point that they don’t understand what Black Americans go through and when the White moderates finally imagine these scenarios happening to themselves and begin seeing it happening to others is when they will understand. Dr. King is using specific descriptions of the scenarios in order to help the reader fully imagine themselves, their siblings, their parents, and their kids in these scenarios so they can fully grasp how they would feel and how the Black people do feel. He lets you know that as a Black you can’t trust anyone, not even cops, your neighbors, not even an amusement park. Dr. King follows up by saying, “...when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name become “n*****,” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are)...” (King 12). The n word is a word that is used by many people who are not Black, the word has been around for a long time and Black people are reclaiming it because it is their word and no one has the right to say it but them. However, then and now it remains an awful slur used by white people (and people of other races) to cause emotional stress to whoever they are using it on. No white person truly knows the impact that words have on a black person, they really won’t know how it feels to be called a racial slur because then and now there is white privilege. No there aren’t white and colored signs anymore that they’re getting humiliated by but racism is present and it is and was time for the injustice against Black Americans to stop. All of this would move the clergymen to realize that they have white privilege because they’ve never had to go through these emotions and injustices, by putting them in the shoes of Black Americans, Dr.King was able to show them what they could never understand.

Dr. King ends this letter by comparing the current injustice and the hope for love to real life objects. An example of this can be seen near the end of the letter when he says, “But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom” (King 34). Here Dr. King is comparing conformity to paralyzing chains. He also seems to be referring to chains in order to make a connection between slavery and the mistreatment of Black Americans. He’s saying that the noble souls have stopped agreeing with what is the standard treatment against Black Americans and instead started fighting for freedom. Furthermore, in the last paragraph of the letter Dr. King states, “Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities…”(King 39). Dr. King is comparing this time of racism, prejudice, and injustice to bad weather. He wants the white moderates and clergymen to know that it doesn’t have to be this huge stain on our nation's history but instead it can just pass and we can all move on from it, the way we move on from bad weather. When comparing misunderstanding to fog he is essentially saying that this big blanket of misunderstanding is covering America and blocking people from seeing that they are making a judgement on Black Americans without even knowing who they truly are and only knowing the color of their skin. Also, in the last paragraph Dr.King adds, “...in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty” (King 39). Here, Dr. King is providing a lighter feeling in this sentence however with the previous sentence he creates a darker feeling. He does this in order to show that having love and brotherhood is a good thing and will help our nation whereas if things stood the way they were, it will be like we are stuck in a nonstop storm. Now he is also switching the fog out for stars over our nation and is telling us that instead of not being able to see the wrong in what was going on, now we will see the light and see the error of our ways. All of this would move the clergymen and white moderates to realize that we can have a better tomorrow because right now it’s like people are chained up and stuck in a storm with no way out but if they start to open their eyes they can change the ways things go and how are nation is written about and remembered.