The emphasis throughout is non nonviolent action, or peaceful protest, which King favours rather than violent acts such as rioting (which, he points out, will alienate many Americans who might otherwise support the cause for racial integration). King answers each of the clergymen’s objections in turn, laying out his argument in calm, rational, but rhetorically brilliant prose. It is also a well-known defence of the notion of civil disobedience, or refusing to obey laws which are immoral or unjust, often through peaceful protest and collective action. Martin Luther King’s open letter written from Birmingham Jail is one of the most famous open letters in the world. He provides several examples of the quiet courage shown by those who had engaged in nonviolent protest in the South. Martin Luther King concludes his letter by arguing that he and his fellow civil rights activists will achieve their freedom, because the goal of America as a nation has always been freedom, going back to the founding of the United States almost two centuries earlier.
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