HAPP 21

Martin Luther King, "Letter From Birmingham Jail" (1963)

H - This document was created by Martin Luther King Junior during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. During this time, people felt as if the pace of improvement for civil rights was going too slowly and, as such, began to grow impatient. Due to this people began to take protests into their own hands and created more radical changes.

P - Martin Luther King Jr.’s point of view revolves around the spreading of awareness about the problems African Americans and other racial minorities face in the United States. Along with this, he believed the current method of sitting idly while waiting for change to the said minorities’ situation was too slow and ineffective, meaning that he also believed other tactics, like civil disobedience, would be beneficial and necessary to instate racial equality.

Three Historical Events:

Black pride was becoming a prevalent idea at the time, where black people were embracing their heritage and culture instead of trying to conform to “white” culture. Martin Luther King jr. displays the struggle of accepting your identity and learning to love it with the story about his daughter.

I have a dream speech, raised awareness of the struggle for racial equality among African Americans and other racial minorities in the United States. Helped promote this message to a wider audience, as the large crowd gathered and publications of his speech afterwards would have exposed his beliefs to an enormous number of people.

Birmingham riots brought attention to the injustices African Americans felt, helped project the negative feelings that Africans felt during segregation.

What does the doc tell you about the author: This shows that the Author is very well educated on his point, bringing up many references to what exactly the plight of his people is. He also tries to reach out to his dissenters by understanding why they may, from an outsider looking in, not understand him, and explains his rationale for these people as well, showing him to be a very intelligent and reasonable person.

What does this document tell you about the time period: This time period shows that African Americans were no longer patient and began to speak out about the injustices they faced. Many pivotal events during this time, such as the Letter from Birmingham Jail, helped educate others and bring awareness to these injustices. Along with this, this brought African Americans closer together and helped encourage acceptance of their own culture.