Martin Luther King Jr. rests as the most remembered figure associated with the civil rights movement in the United States. The nation remembers his message as a nonviolent reach at civil rights through civil disobedience, and resistance. The resistance came from the superior race, government officials, and the white church. Eight Clergymen from said white church continued the resistance by sending a letter that criticized and rebuked King’s movement in Birmingham Alabama, the same movement that led to the incarceration of King in the Birmingham City jail. This letter accused King of creating violence in the streets, and not properly negotiating with courts or government officials before acting. King responded to the Clergymen in a letter of …show more content…
The audience in which King wrote to had studied the Bible wholeheartedly and King took advantage of that. As respected leaders of the white church the Clergymen had spent many years studying the Bible and preaching every word written in it. King made clear through his use of quotes from the Bible and other resources, the importance of his issue and how he could not wait any longer for the issue to resolve by itself, as many members of the white church had wanted the black community to do.
King adapts the style and tone of his letter to accommodate for his audience. In his letter to fellow Clergymen, King used quotes from biblical stories, and from the Bible itself. In using quotes from these sources it shows that King knows his directed audience and how to get points across clearly and strictly. King recites a quote from Paul Tillich, a German-American man of Christian existentialist philosophy, “Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?” (King 4). King brings in this quote to open the eyes of his