King, Martin Luther. Letter from Birmingham Jail - Essay Example

of Lecturer Philosophy 10 May Philosophy Dr. King responded to the charges against his being an “outsider”, and of the methods he brought from outside by clearly stating that he served as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization that operates in all the states of the South. This was the argument that Dr. King used to state that he was not in any way an outsider in the issues that affects a state in the South. Dr. King said that he was called upon by the local affiliate of SCLC in Birmingham to engage in a nonviolent direct action program and so he was not in any way an outsider as he had organizational ties in Birmingham.

He also believed that the methods that they claim he brought from outside are the only things that could deal with the problems of racial injustice and segregation as the other methods are rather too lame in solving these problems (King). Martin Luther King was an African-American activist from Atlanta and he was accused of being an ‘outside agitator’ when he went to Birmingham. King responded by stating that, he cannot sit idly in Atlanta and turn a deaf ear or blind eye to the racial injustice in Birmingham.

He said he is quite aware of the connection that exists amongst all communities and states. He said that injustice anywhere is a risk to justice everywhere and so, he was not in any way an outside agitator as he should be concerned with the injustice in Birmingham as King believed that, if these problems of injustice are not tackled it could spread to other regions of the United States. King believed that anything that affected one directly is likely to affect everybody indirectly. He said that, nobody should be called an outside agitator in any issue that concerns citizens of the United States of America as anybody that lives inside the United States of America should not be called an outsider (King).

The four steps in a non-violent campaign are: Compilation of facts to establish whether there is any evidence of injustice, Negotiation, Self-purification, and Direct action. These steps were undertaken in Birmingham by Martin Luther King and his supporters and they discovered that there is clear evidence of racial injustice in the community (King). The purpose of a direct-action program is to influence the action of the government. Direct action programs are usually political or industrial actions that are carried out with the aim of changing some things in the political terrain of a country or region.

Direct actions are usually in form of a boycott, strike, or civil disobedience. Direct-action programs could be either violent or non-violent and in the case of Martin Luther King, it was non-violent. Martin Luther King staged several non-violent direct actions that included boycotts, marches and demonstrations against the racism and racial segregation in the South and the discrimination against African-Americans (King). King believed that the people have not made any single gain in patiently waiting for their civil rights as he was of the opinion that, it was only direct action that could address the problems of racial injustice and segregation.

He believed that, rather than make the African-Americans patiently wait for their civil rights; they must back these civil rights with resolute lawful and nonviolent pressure. King believed that these could only be possible with the use of nonviolent direct action. He believed that it is only through nonviolent direct action that a community that has refused to negotiate would be brought to the dialogue table. He argued that nonviolent direct action would create a kind of tension that the people carrying out these injustices would be forced to negotiate.

Hence, rather than patiently wait for civil rights, there should be nonviolent direct action that would help address the discrimination problems easier and faster (King). Work Cited King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. April 16, 1963