Quotes About Letter from a Birmingham Jail

These are a couple of great quotes from Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation by Jonathan Rieder:

The “Letter” is compelling as well on literary grounds. Its swerves and swings are remarkable. One moment it offers reflective argument; the next it crackles with prophetic anger. The poise and politesse of the author dissolve into hints of sarcastic disdain, passive aggression, even self-pity. King drops the names of revered philosophers but leavens his erudition with a voyage into the inner recesses of black vulnerability (“When your first name becomes ‘nigger,’ your middle name ‘boy’”) and a tour of white America (“I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches … [and] found myself asking … Who is their God?”). There is also the staccato embrace of extremism, with a sequence of questions and answers that startle like a slap in the face.

And:

As we move through the “Letter,” we witness a striking transformation. In the first half, we are mainly in the presence of a patient and gracious man, who crafts little moments of brotherhood and tries to win over his critics through appeals to their reason, sympathy, and conscience. But around the midpoint, there’s a distinct shift, really a second act. King drops the mask. He begins to speak more bluntly. Instead of explaining himself, he chides and criticizes. He shows himself to be not just a black man but an angry black man. The diplomat gives way to the prophet.

Enjoy. If you let yourself, you’re going to have the opportunity to read one of the finest pieces of rhetoric ever written.