This is one of the very first discussions that we had assigned where we took a look at "The Letter From Birmingham Jail." I was able to analyze the text, but there was room for improvement in places like question number 5. Though I had presented an unjust law I did not go into specifics on how it can be seen as an unjust law, meaning how can the zoning law be used in a way that would be unjust. If I had provided an example of school segregation and housing discrimination, then it would provide more insight on what I had in mind rather than just simply presenting the unjust law.

Source - Writing Practice #1 (WP1): "The Letter From Birmingham Jail"

1. During the time that King had written the letter, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had began the Birmingham campaign in 1963 to raise awareness about the discrimination and help bring about some change to the integration efforts that kept being delayed. The peaceful protesting and almost a decade after Brown v. Board of Education did they start to gain media attention and showed how divided the South was concerning segregation. This was a significant gap in time because all while waiting for some change in the South, people had to wait too long for something that was promised and illegal practices of segregation. While having nonviolent direct action, King was imprisoned for not having a permit to parade and he says, “when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly… it becomes unjust” (p. 3). For this reason is why King’s arrest was unjust and considered to be wrong to him.
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• "Birmingham campaign." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_campaign>.
• King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter From Birmingham Jail." Letter to Fellow Clergymen. 16 Apr. 1963. MS. Birmingham, Alabama.

2. The clergy in Alabama have the power to support the end of Birmingham’s segregation practices, but are not doing so because King says, “the contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice… the arch supporter of the status quo” (p. 5). During that time the status quo was the practice of segregation, especially in the South, and the church was not voicing that it was wrong to practice this then leading to the perpetuation of categorization and separation. What is significant about the fact that King is also a member of the clergy is that he is not being seen or treated as an equal by his fellow clergymen and just shows that much more how the South is resistant to change.

3. One way the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a religious text is the way that King addresses the clergymen as his, “Christian and Jewish brothers” (p. 3). King claims that they are his brothers in the letter and this helps to show it is a religious text by trying to relate how they are unified through the church all wanting the same thing which is to see human progress, describing that it comes from, “tireless efforts… of men willing to be coworkers with God” (p. 4).

4. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in a way is a secular text because, “the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South,” King says, “...have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders” (p. 5). Those that King believed to be his allies have not been and are only looking to look out for themselves rather than helping each other and those that are frustrated will, “seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare” (p. 4) resulting in a worse situation than may have been the time and would only raise tensions even more in Birmingham or even the country.

5. King’s definition of an unjust law is, “a code that a majority inflicts on a minority” (p. 3) meaning that is something that the majority wants to keep the minority from having any sort of say or power in the decision being voted upon which, “is not rooted in eternal and natural law” (p. 3). To distinguish a just law from the unjust law, it is something that is in accordance to moral law or the law of God. A law that could be seen as unjust today is the zoning law where a government tells the landowner how they are able to use their own land. This law is somewhat similar to the unjust practice of segregation because the government is telling someone how to utilize their own land rather than the owner having things done his way.

• "List of most common unjust laws in our society." Indo Expatriate. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. <https://indoexpatriate.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/list-of-most-common-unjust-laws-in-our-society/>.