Engaging with American Democracy » October 28th: MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)

October 28th: MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)

The Gettysburg Address
“Cross of Gold Speech”
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

Announcements

  • Changing up the next two weeks
    • MLK
    • Eisenhower
    • Debate Showcase Assignment, 11/04
      • Participation (in-class) on the syllabus
      • Make 11/04’s assignment fewer points???
      • Add points to Test #2???
  • Test #2 is next Thursday, 11/06
  • Discussion Post #8 due Friday, 10/31, 11:07pm

Plan for the Day

  • The Gettysburg Address from October 21st’s webpage
  • Money Talk(s) from October 23rd’s webpage
  • MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
  • Democracy/Liberty/Freedom/ETC. quotation:
    “Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively….We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity..”
    –Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” 16 April 1963.

MLK, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (16 April 1963)

Let’s get some background context on MLK’s “Letter.” This is a rhetorical masterpiece in the category of Lincoln’s addresses. As far as I know, it’s the only one of our required texts that was written while the author was in jail. MLK was arrested on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham for defying anti-demonstration ordinances. Here’s a good timeline from LSU on MLK’s life.

References in MLK’s Letter

As you know, I sometimes double as an English professor, and we love discussing what between the lines. In addition to the many Biblical allusions, there are references to other texts, including “justice too long delayed is justice denied” (para. 11). MLK directly refers to the poet T.S. Eliot when he writes, “As T. S. Eliot has said: ‘The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.'” (para. 35). There’s quite a bit to unpack, but we need to start with Eliot’s entire passage from his play Murder in the Cathedral:

Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
…
While I ate out of the King’s dish
To become servant of God was never my wish
Servant of God has chance of greater sin
And sorrow, than the man who serves a king.
For those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them.
–Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral, pp. 44-45.

Next Class

We have Dwight D. Eisenhower’s News Conference (June 17, 1953) and Farewell Address (January 17, 1961) on the schedule, but I’m not sure if we’ll get to those. We may have to push those to Tuesday, Nov. 4th or even after Test #2. We’ll see what progress we’ve made. Read MLK, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” if you haven’t already.

Don’t forget to do Weekly Discussion Post #8 before Friday, 10/31, 11:07pm.

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral. Harcourt, 1963. [original work published 1935]

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” 16 April 1963