Jason McCabe
RHET 1302
August 31, 2005

This letter, written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was intended to answer questions the local clergy had about Dr. King’s plans for non-violent action against the segregation laws of Birmingham, Alabama. It is also used for motivation, to stir the members into support and get them to understand that there is no other option. He used many references to passages in the Christian Bible because the audience he was talking to was mostly other people that read the Bible regularly and had dedicated their lives to upholding its beliefs. Also, Dr. King made a long list of past civil rights activist that decided to take action. This was made to give the audience courage and prove that civil disobedience does work and get things done. He defines the difference between a just and unjust law stating that it is a person’s moral obligation to disobey an unjust law. It seems like these appeals would work well with a population of many Negro clergymen that hold the bible sacred and have seen many of these un-justices but just stood by and shrugged them off. Dr. King makes a very convincing argument to get the clergymen of Birmingham to stand behind him and help him end segregation.