Letters from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King - Reading notes

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  • Lots of scripture and historical, particularly American, precedents to back up his rhetoric and arguments
  • Addressed to whites - "you" refers to heads of white churches or the white moderate
  • Echoes A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop

“Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ.”

  • Calling on American discourse. Interestingly, he does so on the past and not the future

"We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop."

 


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