The Letter From Birmingham
Jail
Martin Luther King Jr.
Connor, Grant, Jerromy, Curtis
Martin Luther King Jr.
• He helped in the Civil Rights movement.
• He was a very significant speaker for the
black community when there was racism.
• He was a peaceful man that wanted
everyone to be treated equally.
Historical Background.
• April 16, 1963.
• He wrote in response to the statements made by
Alabama clergymen.
• There was a lot of Racism towards the blacks in the
south.
Summary
Martin Luther King jr. was put in jail. And he
started writing letters to people to inform them
what had happened to him, and that the people
should never give up and that they should always
be peaceful to the whites while they protest. The
main idea of the story is to inform the people of
the Injustice in the community.
Relevance
• This text is important because it helped to
stop racial injustices. And it is also known
because after reading it people have
learned to not make the same mistakes
and have social justice.
Literary Devices
• Metaphor: I think I should indicate why I am in Birmingham, sense you
have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders coming
in.”
• Allusion: Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their
villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the
boundaries of their home towns, and 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. Like Paul, I must
constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
• Metaphor: We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did
in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom
fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."