One of the most influential crusades of the Civil Rights Movement is The Birmingham Campaign. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., it was a series of mainly non-violent boycotts, sit-ins, and marches occurring in Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation. Many times elementary, high school, and college students became demonstrators in support of the cause. The students marched from the 16th Street Baptist Church to Birmingham City Hall. They were often met with violence from the police and members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed this church killing four young African American girls. (“16th Street Baptist Church bombing”) In the poem Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall uses imagery to depict his version of real events that occurred in the life of one of the girls that was killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Randall starts the ballad by presenting the setting for the poem. He uses its’ title, “Ballad of Birmingham”, and the references to the city and the marches in the first, third, and seventh stanzas to show that it is a day of “Freedom March(es)” (4) in Birmingham. He also uses the subtitle (On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963) to The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was a crucial turning point in the movement. “Rather than stifling the movement, activists became more determined to bring about change, to make sure the deaths of the four little girls were not in vain” (Boyd). Randall took careful steps to describe in his ballad the importance of the events that occurred for one of the girls on this day. He depicted the setting, the people, and the attitude so that the reader could truly sense the happenings almost as if he/she were there. While the imagery was simplistic in nature, the emotional response that it brought out of the reader is far more
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proves that he is well knowledgeable in the happenings in Birmingham. By providing a surplus of examples of events and details which he finds alarming, King was able to persuade the clergymen to like at the way the Negro community is being treated in the south using the appeal to logos, pathos and ethos. He displays his willingness to continue with respect and dignity, but because of the emotional ties that he has towards this cause, he will not remain inactive.
On April 3rd, 1963, the Birmingham campaign began and people were protesting against racism and injustice. The non-violent campaign was coordinated by King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. However, King was arrested along with other main leaders of the campaign on April 12th for disobeying the rules of “no parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing”. While jailed, King read a letter (“A Call for Unity”) written by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods from the newspaper. In the letter, the clergymen stated that the campaign was "directed and led in part by outsiders," urging activists to use the courts if rights were being denied rather than to protest.
Chapter 5 showed the contrast between King and fellow black civil rights leader, Malcolm X. Malcolm X did not believe in nonviolent protest and did not sit well with "integration". King believed in conciliatory efforts between blacks and whites while Malcolm X was a separatist and believed in "Black Nationalism". King needed to succeed and force action from Kennedy to prevent other people from becoming extremists. Birmingham, Alabama nicknamed "Bombingham" held a lot of racial tension during the civil right movement; King and his forces decided to take action there. King led marches which in turn brought on confrontations from white authorities. Again, The plight of black people under white savagery tugged on the moral strings of viewers and brought more sympathizers to the cause. The gains won in the struggle in Birmingham reignited black hope and confidence in the power of "mass social dislocation to overcome white intransigence"
There is no safe place in the world. “Ballad of Birmingham” proves that by telling the tragic tale of a young girl and her mother. No matter what a building symbolizes or how much determination is spent on keeping love ones safe, life or destiny will occur. “Ballad of Birmingham” approaches the bombing of Birmingham in 1963 from a sentimental point of view, providing a unique insight into the story. The story of a mother and daughter, as described in the “Ballad of Birmingham,” cannot be understood unless the loss of a loved one has been experience first-hand.
An important idea in the novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" written by Mildred D Taylor is racism. This idea is important because it tells us how life was in the 1930s for a little black girl who matures with racial conflict around her.
Martin Luther King was a huge figure in the civil rights movements, while protesting a non-violent protest he was arrested and taken to Birmingham Jail. He is writing to his clergymen, describing the situation he is in. King says “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance in [Reading the American Past] edited by Michael Johnson (New York: Bedford/St. Martin, 2012), 255. King goes on to describe how Birmingham is a very segregated place with high police brutality and the most unsolved cases on bombing on negro’s houses. The letter King writes demonstrates that times for African Americans are very poor and need to improve. King relates African Americans to “Christian who were willing to face hungry lions and chopping blocks before submitting to laws of the Roman Empire” (Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance, 257). King ends his letter by asking for the negroes who do these nonviolent protests to be recognized for their
Remembering The Children’s Crusade, or known as one of the most stupefying events in history, could take anyone back in the days of segregation and great detriment to our own people. On May 2, 1963, a group of student protesters, in which were motivated by Martin Luther King Jr., partook in the 1963 campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. More than a thousand students skipped their classes and marched to downtown Birmingham using tactics of nonviolent direct action (Carson). On the first day, hundreds were arrested and taken to jail in school buses and paddy wagons. On the second day, the children were slashed with high-pressure fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, clubbed, and dragged to jail (Ward, Kelsey and Avery).
During the course of King's writing, one of his strong points is his ability to take the words of his oppressors, discredit them or explain why their ideas aren't plausible, convey his ideas, and detail exactly why and how they will work. In the sixth paragraph, King rebukes those who "deplore the demonstrations that are currently taking place in Birmingham," as they are only dealing with the effect and not recognizing the cause for the demonstrations, then clarifies that the white power left the Negro community no other choice. In the next paragraph, King spells out the four basic steps of any non-violent demonstration. Breaking it down even more, he gives an example of each step in the Birmingham situation. King gave the reader an easy to follow step by step account of a non-violent protest that let the reader understand the careful planning of each step.
Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall. In Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall illustrates a conflict between a child who wishes to march for civil rights and a mother who wishes only to protect her child. Much of this poem is read as dialogue between a mother and a child, a style which gives it an intimate tone and provides insight to the feelings of the characters. Throughout the poem, the child is eager to go into Birmingham and march for freedom with the people there.
In this book, it shows examples of racial strife includes segregation, physical attacks and emotional abuse. The Logan family was treated indescribably. The book starts showing racial strife when the children of the black family has to go to a different school than the white children for that very reason. This book shows the way racism from the 1930’s and how much it’s changed compared to today. If we treated African Americans the same way starting in the 1930’s we wouldn’t have had so much commotion that we have today. In “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” the blacks were so segregated that they had to go to different schools, and they didn’t even have a bus to walk to schools which took an hour there and back.
This letter powerfully persuades his points on why he was in Birmingham, why he acted in a non-violent direct action, why the timing was when it was and that segregation needs to end. He uses this letter in order to persuade the clergymen into understanding his reasons for all the above. He uses logos, pathos and ethos to show the passion behind his cause. This letter opened eyes onto people of that time. Segregation is unjust and that the laws should not bend just for color. He quotes St. Augustine, “an unjust law is no law at all.” This quote sums up the whole letter and its purpose; laws should be just for all and that when it is not it is man’s job to seek justice, peacefully. Just as peacefully he had done with the non-violent protest.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King is able to effectively argue against criticisms through the use of passionate and calm tones, vivid metaphors, and biblical and historical allusions. King uses numerous biblical allusions to resonate with his clergymen audience and to make them realize that they were condemning a righteous movement. The vivid language in metaphors captures emotion and expands understanding. Mr. King was able to do anything to end the injustice in Birmingham and his commitment was shown in his tone.
From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city.
Baldwin begins his essay by stating that fact that his father died on the July 29, 1943. Right after stating that fact, he mentions the rioting, which occurred in Detroit and in Harlem about a month before the death of his father. Baldwin incorporates the events that are going on around him in his narrative as a way to set up the environment for the reader. The rioting and other events that Baldwin speaks of is his way of explaining, or even rationalizing his feelings during tha...
One of the first major themes of the book deals with civil rights. The events that happen during this decade are what lead to the civil rights movement of the early 1960’s. Which eventually turned into the Civil Rights Act of 1965. When most people think about the civil rights, most people think of Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, SLLC etc.