"Letter From Birmingham City Jail"

      This week in class, we have been reading many letters. We read a couple of personal letters from John and Abigail letters. We also read a public letter written by Crevecour addressed to many people. Another one of these public letters that we read was written by Martin Luther King Jr. titled "Letter from Birmingham City Jail". This was written on April 16, 1963 in Birmingham City Jail while King was in prison. His purpose for writing this letter was to inform, persuade, and explain. It was written as a response to a newspaper article written after King's arrest defending the policemen. Martin Luther wanted to show a different side of what had really happened.
      Martin Luther King Jr. was a constant, passionate advocate or civil rights and freedom. This was also the subject of his letter. His tone in the letter was calm, encouraging, and very emotional. He preached to his followers that the road to freedom and racial equality was a difficult one, but it could be achieved if they tried hard enough. He believed  in achieving this goal with nonviolence. He realized that just because they were being nonviolent as protesters, it did not mean that policemen or other white Americans would show them the same respect or courtesy. Many times they were beaten, shoved, pushed, not allowed to eat, and even had dogs unleashed on them, yet Martin Luther kept strong belief in what he wanted, and encouraged others to do so as well.