Martin Luther King Jr. was a black revolution leader who fought for the equal rights of blacks in USA.
A priest by profession.
A philosopher and hero of the blacks.
Headed the Southern Christian Leadership and held peaceful protests.
He was arrested for a similar protest in Birmingham.
White priests sent him a letter in jail, asking him to end the demonstration and approach the court with his problem.
He wrote this in reply to their letter on 1st April 1963.
He followed Jesus' doctrine of peace and believed that with peaceful protests the cruel and unjust can be made to realize their mistake.
The letter from the white priests of Alabama was published in the newspaper Post Herald.
In the letter the clergymen said
Luther was an outsider he should stop demonstrating and negotiate with the government.
his protests were ill timed or untimely the protestors broke the law and no one should be allowed to do that.
It was illegal to hold public demonstrations in Birmingham and King was arrested on the charge of breaking that law.
In response King proved that he was definitely not an outsider, he was an American.
He also clarified that he had already tried to negotiate and appeal in the courts but nothing came from it.
The protests in Birmingham were considered a focal point of his fight against racial discrimination.
King at Press Conference, 1964. His police database snapshot
Library of Congress
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John Winston Lennon (9 Oct 1940-8 Dec 1980).
Singer, song writer and musician became famous as a member of The Beatles.
In 2002, a poll about The Greatest Britons, carried out by BBC, named him the 8th greatest.
2008, Rolling Stone Magazine 5th Greatest Singer.
A peace activist, he participated in rallies and wrote songs to condemn Vietnam war and British actions in Ireland.
'Imagine' is an iconic hit and considered a peace anthem
Released in 1971, inspired from Yoko Ono's poem
Third greatest song in World music .
Based on Lennon's belief that the world, people and country's are all one .
The main idea of the song - equality, peace and harmony.
Statue in Lennon Park, Havana, Cuba.
John Lennon
Wikimedia Commons, 2012
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Motion Picture 'Crash' was released on 6th of March 2005.
The writer and director is Paul Haggis.
The movie won Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the 2006 Academy Awards.
The movie doesn't fall into any particular category, genre or form.
Movies like 'House of Sand and Fog' and '21 Grams' which are neither comedy, nor thrillers.
The story is about several couples belonging to different races. They collide and come face-to-face with racism, prejudice and loss.
The movie seems to say that all human beings are similar and everyone is guilty of prejudice and cruelty at some point in their lives.
Scenes from the movie
Imdb.com, 2012
The movie, song and the letter all share a common theme. They advocate equality, brotherhood, unity and justice for all. The purpose of all three is to help make the world a peaceful place, where people are not judge, degraded or treated cruelly. In my profession as a Registered Nurse it is very important to let go of personal bias and provide all patients with the same amounts of care and attention. Every individual patient's life is equally valuable.
Water being sprayed on black protesters to force them to disperse - Birmingham
(Hub Pages, 2011)
Scott, A.O, 2005
Rogerebert.com, 2006
Google Images
The reason he was imprisoned was that the Mayor of Birmingham was a racially biased man and he didn't want King to rouse the backs against the establishment.
Birmingham was the safe haven of segregationists (Sparksnotes.com,2012).
Language and arguments make it an essay rather than a letter.
He discusses the disparities in the way law and government treated blacks and whites, especially in Birmingham.
He addresses the white clergymen and calls upon their Christian goodness .
He invites them to eradicate segregation between blacks and whites.
He uses Biblical 'allusions' and references to Socrates principles to give weight age to his arguments and gain support for them.
The Biblical references are used to compare him and his mission to the actions of prophets and biblical events.
"A Letter from Birmingham Jail"
These references help make the
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