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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   There are many reasons why Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail can be considered to be a rhetorically powerful and skilled piece of argumentation.  In my mind, the primary reason why Dr. King's letter can be considered to be a great sample of argumentation is that it makes the Civil Rights Movement in America  both a moral/ religious and a political struggle.  King's invocation of Scripture along with the "fierce urgency of now" (a line used in the "I Have a Dream" speech) transforms the struggle for African American Rights as an issue which has a political dimension in modern America whose roots can as old a Religious text.  In writing the letter, King takes a stance against those who belittle the struggle with his statement as those who are denying the moral and political truth:  Segregated practices are both unlawful and immoral.  Notice, again, King's brilliance in weaving both moral/ religious and political ends simultaneously:  "Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

   It is here where King's letter is amazingly effective in that it transformed the Civil Rights movement from an isolated and removed protest to a struggle of good vs. evil on spiritual and political scales.  King's letter galvanized many into action, understanding that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  While America is a young nation in comparison to others, King's letter puts American ideals of freedom on the same scale as every other nation when seen in this transformative context.

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   Posted by akannan on Sunday July 26, 2009 at 5:56 AM