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Lesson 4

How did the words of Martin Luther King underscore the messages about injustice inherent in photographs such as Birmingham, Alabama? We will read excerpts from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will continue to build our understanding of the background and context of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as skills for close reading and rhetorical analysis of the language, claims, and appeals King uses in support of his argument.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze how an author’s perspective influences the position, purpose, and ideas of a text?

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among pathos, logos, and ethos in King’s letter?

  • Can I read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr., Writers House, 1963
  • Digital Access
    • “An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend,” Madison Horne, History.com, 2021
    • Police Using Dogs to Attack Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, Alabama, Charles Moore, International Center of Photography

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

We will read the beginning of King’s letter and respond to questions regarding the development of his central claim.

Step 1

Join a reading group, as instructed by your teacher. Access Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” one of the most important defenses of civil disobedience in American history. King’s letter is a response to a single-page letter from several clergymen suggesting that social injustices existed but that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets.

Read and annotate the first eight paragraphs on your own and then discuss the following questions with your group, recording your responses in your Learning Log:

  1. The letter King is responding to states, “We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders.” How does King respond to this notion that he is an outsider? What evidence from the text supports your interpretation?

  2. How does King support the claim, “we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action”?

Step 2

Review the terms purpose and perspective.

Purpose: The primary reasons for and the context in which the argument is presented.

Perspective: The way someone understands, views and presents an issue, based on his or her relationship to and analysis of the issue.

Determine what you think King’s purpose is in writing the letter, and what his perspective on the events in Birmingham is.

As a group, closely read the following sentences:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Discuss what you think King is saying about injustice in the first sentence and how that connects to why he has come to Birmingham. Think about the metaphorical phrase “a single garment of destiny.” As you discuss this metaphor, consider how it relates to the police dog attack immortalized in Moore’s Birmingham, Alabama photograph. Use the following questions to guide your thinking:

  1. What might King be implying through his metaphor “a single garment of destiny”?

  2. How does King’s “garment of destiny” metaphor relate to Moore’s Birmingham, Alabama image of the police dog attack?

Then pay attention to the structure and imagery in the second sentence.

  1. How do the two parallel phrases in the second sentence build on each other?

Step 3

In your Learning Log, write down these sentences and paraphrase what you think King is saying. Make notes about what you think his purpose and perspective are in the letter.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

Using an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” we will identify the author’s purpose and how King establishes his credibility.

Step 1

After reading Paragraph 9 (starting with “You may well ask, ‘Why direct action?’” ) from King’s letter, respond to the following questions with a partner from your group and write down your responses in your Learning Log. When you are finished, you and your partner should turn to another set of partners from your group to share your responses:

  1. According to King, what is the purpose of direct action?

  2. How does King describe the usefulness of tension in this paragraph?

Step 2

As a group, discuss what you think King is saying, and how he is saying it dramatically, when he talks about an intent “to create the kind of tension in society that would help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”

  1. How does King contrast and link “the dark depths of prejudice and racism” with “the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood”?

Be prepared to share your group’s answers in a whole-class discussion.

Activity 3: Read – Write – Discuss

We will read an excerpt from King’s letter and respond to questions about the development of his claims.

Step 1

On your own, read paragraphs 10-13 from the letter, paying attention to and discussing what King means when he uses the following artful statements:

  • “[The South is] bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue”

  • “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”

  • “justice too long delayed is justice denied”

Step 2

After analyzing King’s use of language, respond to the questions below. Write down your responses in your Learning Log and share with your group:

  1. What are King’s ideas about why these demonstrations are happening at all?

  2. How does this add to his rebuttal of his critic’s claims? How does King justify the demonstrations in relation to negotiations?

Be sure to cite evidence from the text to support your claims.

Activity 4: Read

We will read an excerpt from King’s letter and consider how he uses examples to evoke an emotional response in readers, in much the same way a photograph might.

Step 1

As a class, read Paragraph 14 closely, noting that it presents a series of very emotional examples of what Black Americans have had to endure in a segregated society. Take time to read each of the examples closely, and think about how they affect your emotions as a reader.

Note how King uses a characteristic rhetorical device—repetition—which he borrowed from his career as a preacher. Think about how his linked examples pile up as evidence used to support the claim that follows:

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.

Copy this sentence into your Learning Log, and explain what you think it means and how it relates to the many examples of racism that precede it. Explain how King’s examples and language have an emotional impact on you as a reader, then reply to the following question:

  1. How does King use emotional examples and appeals to develop his justification for direct action?

Step 2

Share your responses in a whole-class discussion. Recall the series of photographs from Charles Moore that you examined in previous lessons.

Discuss how King’s use of emotional examples to evoke responses in his audience and sway public opinion relate to what photojournalists like Moore did when they shot and published a series of emotional photographs, as Moore and Schulke did in Life Magazine in 1962 at the University of Mississippi and 1963 in Birmingham.

Activity 5: Read – Discuss

We will continue to think about the connections between makers of history like Dr. King and chroniclers of history like flip schulke by examining images schulke took of King during their years of friendship.

Step 1

Access an article and photo gallery about Flip Schulke and Martin Luther King on the History.com website titled "An Intimate View of MLK Through the Lens of a Friend." Note that this article is about Flip Schulke, the Life magazine photographer that Dr. King admonished to stay out of “the fray” and instead record the history of the Civil Rights Movement through his camera.

As a class, read through the first five paragraphs of the article, looking for details that address this question:

  1. What more do you learn about the relationship between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and photojournalist Flip Schulke?

Step 2

Next, review the gallery of 15 photographs by Schulke that are archived on the webpage. Consider these questions as you view the photos and then discuss them:

  1. Which photographs stand out to you as particularly compelling? Why?

  2. What sense of Dr. King, his work, and the Civil Rights Movement emerges for you through the series of photographs taken by Schulke between 1958 and 1968?

  3. In what ways do Schulke’s photographs achieve both truth and beauty?

Activity 6: Read – Write

For homework, we will read the rest of King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and write down interesting or powerful sentences in our Mentor Sentence Journal.

For homework, read and annotate the rest of King’s letter, paying close attention to his use of language and rhetoric.

Write down at least three interesting or powerful sentences in your Mentor Sentence Journal.