Letter From a Birmingham Jail,

¶ … Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. defends acts of civil disobedience in the fight for Black equality to supposedly moderate white ministers who oppose the movement.

First point of Analysis: Martin Luther King Jr. skillfully tailors his use of Biblical allusions to suit his intended audience of white ministers.

Text Evidence: Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Text Evidence: To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just.

Well crafted Sentence explaining how the two text evidences you have chosen show your point of analysis: By appealing to Biblical authority, King defends coming in as a supposed 'outsider' into the community to fight injustice.

Second Point of Analysis: King uses metaphors to underline the slow pace by which African-Americans have been accorded civil rights.

Text Evidence: The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.

Text Evidence: 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.

Well crafted sentence explaining how the two text evidences show your point of analysis: In his use of metaphors, King poetically dramatizes the length of time African-Americans have struggled for full civil equality, in response to the white ministers' demand that he be patient, moderate, and not 'push' Southern whites to change too quickly.

Third Point of Analysis: King, to address the specific allegations of the white ministers uses rhetorical questions throughout his letter.

Text Evidence: Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?