Change is something that a lot of us are terrified of. Whether that is new laws coming into place, switching up your daily routine or even graduating from high school and attending college. However, change is inevitable; we cannot control it. Sometimes change happens more rapidly and sudden than others, depending on who is behind such matters. Martin Luther King Jr. was the fuel behind the American Civil Rights Movement and without him relentlessly driving for desegregation; it's hard to say where we would be at socially in our country today.
After peacefully protesting the atrocious acts inflicted upon the black community in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King was arrested among other peaceful demonstrators. That same day, 8 local clergymen published an article in the local newspaper where they criticized King saying that the demonstrations were "unwise and untimely." As a response, M.L.K. wrote a letter from his cell defending his actions.
In this letter, Dr. King talks about the unjust treatment of him and the rest of the Negro population in America. The letter had a number of emotional appeals in it that I think are important to point out. The opening line of the letter goes "While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail" which is already an attention getter. Dr. King takes advantage of the voice he has to make this letter effective. It is truly difficult to put into words exactly how much unjust treatment was received by African-Americans, but the use of imagery throughout the letter was heart wrenching. In a section of the letter, he talks about how African-Americans waited more than 340 years for their constitutional and God-given rights. Most of the time, they were told to "wait," but King tries to describe to the white people of America that we don't know what it feels like to be "harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stancewhen you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of 'nobodiness.
