According to Ross (2007), “Nobody was sure how many people would turn up for the demonstration in Washington, D.C. Some traveling from the South were harassed and threatened. But on August 28, 1963, an estimated quarter of a million people – about a quarter of whom were white – marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a protest and a communal celebration.” People were everywhere as Karen and I walked closer to the start of the march. As far as I can see, people were holding signs that read “We Shall Overcome” and “End Segregated Rules in Public Schools”. Some people were waving the United States flag.
Victoria Lopez English 1101 December 10, 2012 Rhetorical Analysis Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, published in 1964 in his own book Why We Can’t Wait, addresses and explains his current situation to the clergymen of Alabama. On April 12, 1963 Dr. King was arrested in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama for contempt of court and parading without a permit during a protest. His purpose of the letter is to inform the clergymen of his views and the reasons for his “direct action” on the issue of desegregation. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws.
The idea of using non-violence as a technique in the civil rights movement was the idea of Martin Luther King which branched from Ghandi’s belief of non-violence from the time he spent in India and his own Christian beliefs. A range of non-violent methods were used by the protestors. In 1955, the Montgomery Busy Boycott was the biggest protest to date and was the first major time that so many people had come together to overturn the Jim Crow laws. The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of non-violent protests in 1960 which led to the Woolworths department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in southern US as well as segregation in public areas being largely abandoned in Florida, Texas etc. The freedom rides were when civil rights activists rode interstate buses into the southern US in 1961 to test the supreme courts decision of ruling segregation on interstate transport illegal.
To show this I will discuss: force, confidentiality, safety, and a message. According to Simon, in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, the Civil Rights Movement continued to feel suppressive force from the government. Throughout that past year, Civil Rights Activists participated in “Project C”, and “March on Washington”, lead by Martin Luther King Jr. Simon States “Project C” was commonly known for the force the police inflicted on demonstrators of the African American community. Simon also states, that dogs, fire hoses, and jail time were used to disperse the peaceful demonstrators. Randall conveys the mother feelings about the streets of Birmingham to her daughter, in lines six through nine.
Martin Luther King is a African American civil rights activist that uses numerous techniques of peaceful protest to imrove the human rights of African americans. In 1954, he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where Rosa Parks was famously arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. After Parks' arrest, King came to national prominence in the US. He was a leading figure in organising the boycott by African Americans of buses in Montgomery. Tutelage from Bayard Rustin, a prominent civil rights campaigner, helped King to commit to a principle of non-violent action heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's success in opposing the British in India.
Birmingham consisted of adults and children as young as 6 years old quietly and peacefully protesting in the streets through sit-ins, pray-ins, marches, boycotts and non-violent direct action. King knew Birmingham was a rigidly segregated city with a white supremacist police chief that would get media coverage. During the protest, King was arrested and wrote “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”- a call for African Americans to take non-violent action and make a stand against racism. His next protest was Washington in August 1963 where he made his “I Have A Dream” speech which later went on to receive worldwide recognition. This speech showed America that King was an extremely charismatic person with a powerful speaking ability.
Martin Luther King’s Jailhouse Call for Unity On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King along with other civil rights activists marched on downtown Birmingham, Alabama as pat of a program of direct action campaigns aimed at fighting the “disease of segregation” as it existed there. He was subsequently arrested on charges of parading without a permit during which time he wrote a letter to a group of clergymen who had written him expressing their opinion that his demonstrations were unwise and untimely. His letter from the Birmingham Jail is an impassioned plea for the opposing members of society to come to a better understanding of why the time to push for the end of racial segregation in the name of social progress cannot wait any longer. King does an excellent job of effectively employing pathos in his speech in order to relate to his readers regardless of race, religion or social status. For every argument he makes, King backs it with irrefutable analogies in hopes of moving past the issue of race and getting to an understanding of humanity.
The March on Washington of 1963, was a huge political rally which took place on August 28 in Washington DC. Also referred to as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, this march began at the Washington Monument and ended with a cultural program at the Lincoln Memorial. It was marked by many historic moments of American history, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s legendary 'I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. It was also the first protest march to be telecast exclusively on the national television. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to term that media played a crucial role in the success of the March on Washington.
The March on Washington was about a large rally of civil and economic rights for African Americans. This event took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic speech I Have a Dream advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march. This march was helled by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations, under the theme "jobs, and freedom." The march had about 200,000 police to over 300,000 leaders of the march.
The 1960’s were noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against protestors, many of whom were in their early teens or younger (Civil Rights March on Washington). During these protests, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested. (O'Hagan, Sean). It was at this time where he wrote his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which suggested civil disobedience against unjust laws.