what is king's thesis

A Summary and Analysis of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ is Martin Luther King’s most famous written text, and rivals his most celebrated speech, ‘ I Have a Dream ’, for its political importance and rhetorical power.

King wrote this open letter in April 1963 while he was imprisoned in the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama. When he read a statement issued in the newspaper by eight of his fellow clergymen, King began to compose his response, initially writing it in the margins of the newspaper article itself.

In ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, King answers some of the criticisms he had received from the clergymen in their statement, and makes the case for nonviolent action to bring about an end to racial segregation in the South. You can read the letter in full here if you would like to read King’s words before reading on to our summary of his argument, and analysis of the letter’s meaning and significance.

‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’: summary

The letter is dated 16 April 1963. King begins by addressing his ‘fellow clergymen’ who wrote the statement published in the newspaper. In this statement, they had criticised King’s political activities ‘unwise and untimely’. King announces that he will respond to their criticisms because he believes they are ‘men of genuine good will’.

King outlines why he is in Birmingham: as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was invited by an affiliate group in Birmingham to engage in a non-violent direct-action program: he accepted. When the time came, he honoured his promise and came to Birmingham to support the action.

But there is a bigger reason for his travelling to Birmingham: because injustice is found there, and, in a famous line, King asserts: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ The kind of direction action King and others have engaged in around Birmingham is a last resort because negotiations have broken down and promises have been broken.

When there is no alternative, direct action – such as sit-ins and marches – can create what King calls a ‘tension’ which will mean that a community which previously refused to negotiate will be forced to come to the negotiating table. King likens this to the ‘tension’ in the individual human mind which Socrates, the great classical philosopher, fostered through his teachings.

Next, King addresses the accusation that the action he and others are taking in Birmingham is ‘untimely’. King points out that the newly elected mayor of the city, like the previous incumbent, is in favour of racial segregation and thus wishes to preserve the political status quo so far as race is concerned. As King observes, privileged people seldom give up their privileges voluntarily: hence the need for nonviolent pressure.

King now turns to the question of law-breaking. How can he and others justify breaking the law? He quotes St. Augustine, who said that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’ A just law uplifts human personality and is consistent with the moral law and God’s law. An unjust law degrades human personality and contradicts the moral law (and God’s law). Because segregation encourages one group of people to view themselves as superior to another group, it is unjust.

He also asserts that he believes the greatest stumbling-block to progress is not the far-right white supremacist but the ‘white moderate’ who are wedded to the idea of ‘order’ in the belief that order is inherently right. King points out both in the Bible (the story of Shadrach and the fiery furnace ) and in America’s own colonial history (the Boston Tea Party ) people have practised a form of ‘civil disobedience’, breaking one set of laws because a higher law was at stake.

King addresses the objection that his actions, whilst nonviolent themselves, may encourage others to commit violence in his name. He rejects this argument, pointing out that this kind of logic (if such it can be called) can be extended to all sorts of scenarios. Do we blame a man who is robbed because his possession of wealth led the robber to steal from him?

The next criticism which King addresses is the notion that he is an extremist. He contrasts his nonviolent approach with that of other African-American movements in the US, namely the black nationalist movements which view the white man as the devil. King points out that he has tried to steer a path between extremists on either side, but he is still labelled an ‘extremist’.

He decides to own the label, and points out that Jesus could be regarded as an ‘extremist’ because, out of step with the worldview of his time, he championed love of one’s enemies.

Other religious figures, as well as American political figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, might be called ‘extremists’ for their unorthodox views (for their time). Jefferson, for example, was considered an extremist for arguing, in the opening words to the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. ‘Extremism’ doesn’t have to mean one is a violent revolutionary: it can simply denote extreme views that one holds.

King expresses his disappointment with the white church for failing to stand with him and other nonviolent activists campaigning for an end to racial segregation. People in the church have made a variety of excuses for not supporting racial integration.

The early Christian church was much more prepared to fight for what it believed to be right, but it has grown weak and complacent. Rather than being disturbers of the peace, many Christians are now upholders of the status quo.

Martin Luther King concludes his letter by arguing that he and his fellow civil rights activists will achieve their freedom, because the goal of America as a nation has always been freedom, going back to the founding of the United States almost two centuries earlier. He provides several examples of the quiet courage shown by those who had engaged in nonviolent protest in the South.

‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’: analysis

Martin Luther King’s open letter written from Birmingham Jail is one of the most famous open letters in the world. It is also a well-known defence of the notion of civil disobedience, or refusing to obey laws which are immoral or unjust, often through peaceful protest and collective action.

King answers each of the clergymen’s objections in turn, laying out his argument in calm, rational, but rhetorically brilliant prose. The emphasis throughout is non nonviolent action, or peaceful protest, which King favours rather than violent acts such as rioting (which, he points out, will alienate many Americans who might otherwise support the cause for racial integration).

In this, Martin Luther King was greatly influenced by the example of Mahatma Gandhi , who had led the Indian struggle for independence earlier in the twentieth century, advocating for nonviolent resistance to British rule in India. Another inspiration for King was Henry David Thoreau, whose 1849 essay ‘ Civil Disobedience ’ called for ordinary citizens to refuse to obey laws which they consider unjust.

This question of what is a ‘just’ law and what is an ‘unjust’ law is central to King’s defence of his political approach as laid out in the letter from Birmingham Jail. He points out that everything Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was ‘legal’, because the Nazis changed the laws to suit their ideology and political aims. But this does not mean that what they did was moral : quite the opposite.

Similarly, it would have been ‘illegal’ to come to the aid of a Jew in Nazi Germany, but King states that he would have done so, even though, by helping and comforting a Jewish person, he would have been breaking the law. So instead of the view that ‘law’ and ‘justice’ are synonymous, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ is a powerful argument for obeying a higher moral law rather than manmade laws which suit those in power.

But ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ is also notable for the thoughtful and often surprising things King does with his detractors’ arguments. For instance, where we might expect him to object to being called an ‘extremist’, he embraces the label, observing that some of the most pious and peaceful figures in history have been ‘extremists’ of one kind of another. But they have called for extreme love, justice, and tolerance, rather than extreme hate, division, or violence.

Similarly, King identifies white moderates as being more dangerous to progress than white nationalists, because they believe in ‘order’ rather than ‘justice’ and thus they can sound rational and sympathetic even as they stand in the way of racial integration and civil rights. As with the ‘extremist’ label, King’s position here may take us by surprise, but he backs up his argument carefully and provides clear reasons for his stance.

There are two main frames of reference in the letter. One is Christian examples: Jesus, St. Paul, and Amos, the Old Testament prophet , are all mentioned, with King drawing parallels between their actions and those of the civil rights activists participating in direct action.

The other is examples from American history: Abraham Lincoln (who issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War, a century before King was writing) and Thomas Jefferson (who drafted the words to the Declaration of Independence, including the statement that all men are created equal).

Both Christianity and America have personal significance for King, who was a reverend as well as a political campaigner and activist. But these frames of reference also establish a common ground between both him and the clergymen he addresses, and, more widely, with many other Americans who will read the open letter.

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Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin luther king, jr., ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Nonviolence

As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book,  Stride Toward Freedom , and in subsequent books and articles. “True pacifism,” or “nonviolent resistance,” King wrote, is “a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love” (King,  Stride , 80). Both “morally and practically” committed to nonviolence, King believed that “the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom” (King,  Stride , 79;  Papers  5:422 ).

King was first introduced to the concept of nonviolence when he read Henry David Thoreau’s  Essay on Civil Disobedience  as a freshman at  Morehouse College . Having grown up in Atlanta and witnessed segregation and racism every day, King was “fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system” (King,  Stride , 73).

In 1950, as a student at  Crozer Theological Seminary , King heard a talk by Dr. Mordecai  Johnson , president of Howard University. Dr. Johnson, who had recently traveled to  India , spoke about the life and teachings of Mohandas K.  Gandhi . Gandhi, King later wrote, was the first person to transform Christian love into a powerful force for social change. Gandhi’s stress on love and nonviolence gave King “the method for social reform that I had been seeking” (King,  Stride , 79).

While intellectually committed to nonviolence, King did not experience the power of nonviolent direct action first-hand until the start of the  Montgomery bus boycott  in 1955. During the boycott, King personally enacted Gandhian principles. With guidance from black pacifist Bayard  Rustin  and Glenn  Smiley  of the  Fellowship of Reconciliation , King eventually decided not to use armed bodyguards despite threats on his life, and reacted to violent experiences, such as the bombing of his home, with compassion. Through the practical experience of leading nonviolent protest, King came to understand how nonviolence could become a way of life, applicable to all situations. King called the principle of nonviolent resistance the “guiding light of our movement. Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method” ( Papers  5:423 ).

King’s notion of nonviolence had six key principles. First, one can resist evil without resorting to violence. Second, nonviolence seeks to win the “friendship and understanding” of the opponent, not to humiliate him (King,  Stride , 84). Third, evil itself, not the people committing evil acts, should be opposed. Fourth, those committed to nonviolence must be willing to suffer without retaliation as suffering itself can be redemptive. Fifth, nonviolent resistance avoids “external physical violence” and “internal violence of spirit” as well: “The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him” (King,  Stride , 85). The resister should be motivated by love in the sense of the Greek word  agape , which means “understanding,” or “redeeming good will for all men” (King,  Stride , 86). The sixth principle is that the nonviolent resister must have a “deep faith in the future,” stemming from the conviction that “The universe is on the side of justice” (King,  Stride , 88).

During the years after the bus boycott, King grew increasingly committed to nonviolence. An India trip in 1959 helped him connect more intimately with Gandhi’s legacy. King began to advocate nonviolence not just in a national sphere, but internationally as well: “the potential destructiveness of modern weapons” convinced King that “the choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence” ( Papers  5:424 ).

After  Black Power  advocates such as Stokely  Carmichael  began to reject nonviolence, King lamented that some African Americans had lost hope, and reaffirmed his own commitment to nonviolence: “Occasionally in life one develops a conviction so precious and meaningful that he will stand on it till the end. This is what I have found in nonviolence” (King,  Where , 63–64). He wrote in his 1967 book,  Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? : “We maintained the hope while transforming the hate of traditional revolutions into positive nonviolent power. As long as the hope was fulfilled there was little questioning of nonviolence. But when the hopes were blasted, when people came to see that in spite of progress their conditions were still insufferable … despair began to set in” (King,  Where , 45). Arguing that violent revolution was impractical in the context of a multiracial society, he concluded: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. The beauty of nonviolence is that in its own way and in its own time it seeks to break the chain reaction of evil” (King,  Where , 62–63). 

King, “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,” 13 April 1960, in  Papers  5:419–425 .

King,  Stride Toward Freedom , 1958.

King,  Where Do We Go from Here , 1967.

Home — Essay Samples — History — Civil Rights Movement — Martin Luther King Jr Thesis Statement

Martin Luther King Jr Thesis Statement

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While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

The Process for Developing Thesis Statements for History : Home

Process for developing thesis statements for history, developing a thesis statement for history .

More than most other academic disciplines, History is focused on clear, organized, and developed writing. And the key fundamental to writing in History is to focus on developing the proper thesis from start to finish.  

You can be much more efficient in your searches for research by narrowing down a topic from the very beginning with a working thesis.

For example: Your history teacher assigns a Portfolio Project about how the US ended up fighting for the Allies in World War I. The teacher prompts you by writing that the US could have fought for either the Allies or the Central power in World War I, but they ended up fighting for just the one. Why not the other? Or how remaining neutral in the war would have affected the eventual outcome. Take a position and argue which one was the better choice and why. Defend a strong position.

So, if you develop a working thesis out of this prompt you can immediately focus in on your position. 

The essential elements of a proper History working thesis:

• Asserts an historical argument - not a fact, but an ARGUMENT
• Therefore, you are asserting a position that you have to defend .
• Is historically focused and precise,
• and ALWAYS answers the question, "so what?" Why should we care, TODAY?
• Finally, your thesis should identify the main points that you are using to defend your position and will form the basis of every topic sentence in your body paragraphs. This part of the working thesis will take more time to develop. 

The thesis statement can be up to three to four sentences and is expected to be at the end or your introduction.

The Finish:

Your working thesis stays with the writing project until you revise it for the VERY last time - right before submitting your whole paper. You want to make sure that is closely reflects your conclusion, which was written after you developed the body of the paper. 

Remember: the very first thing that your reader will read is your introduction. First impressions are critically important. So, you will want to go back and update your thesis, which will be the end of your writing process. 

Using the prompt above, here is a successful thesis:

Although the US entered World War I on the Allied side against Germany and the Central Power on April 6, 1917, the war had already been raging in Europe for three years. The largest ethnic group in the US were German, equating to 10% of the population; yet while a majority of the nation favored England, France and the other Allies--both groups highly favored US neutrality as the best approach. Therefore, had Germany not continue responding to the Allied blockade by indiscriminately sinking all ships, regardless of citizenship and cargo, the US would have stayed neutral, and the eventual tide of the war would have gone the other way - for the Central Powers. 

These helpful tips were provided by James Meredith - 

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Altria: The Dividend King Is Alive, I'm Still Adding To My Position

• Altria Group, Inc. has been one of my favorite dividend picks, and since the publication of my first bull thesis back in February this year, the stock has outperformed the market.
• This could signal that potentially the Company has now landed in a territory of overvaluation.
• In this article, I dissect the recent earnings report and share the reasons why I am consistently reinvesting the dividends and adding to my position in Altria.

Right at the start of February this year, I wrote an extensive piece on Altria Group, Inc. ( NYSE: MO ) - "Altria: The Demise Of This Dividend King Is Overexaggerated, I'm Betting Big Now."

As the title implies, I provided several reasons that have motivated me of going long MO, making it one of the largest positions in my portfolio. The key essence of the buy thesis boiled down to the combination of the following factors:

• Juicy dividend yield, which at that time stood at ~ 9.1%
• Depressed valuations as the P/CF multiple was just below 9x.
• Consistently growing EBITDA since 2022.
• Very robust capital structure - e.g., interest coverage ratio above 10x and net debt to EBITDA below 1.9x.
• Cash flow payout ratio of ~ 60%, which leaves huge volumes of cash in the books enabling MO to further de-risk its balance sheet, buy back shares or keep growing the dividend.

So far, after the publication of my bull thesis, Altria has clearly outperformed the market, registering strong total return performance.

One of the consequences of this kind of share price run-up is that the dividend yield has dropped by circa 150 basis points, and, theoretically, one could question whether there is still a decent upside left for MO to realize.

Please let me know explain why, in my opinion, Altria still remains a solid buy and why I continue to reinvest and add more capital to the existing position.

Thesis review

The answer to why MO remains a buy lies in the details of the Q1 2024 earnings report . In a nutshell, the new data points that emerged from this report fully justify the recent increase in MO's share price.

The key segment that is set to drive MO's growth and offset the structural decline in the conventional cigarettes business in the future is NJOY. In the first quarter, MO kept registering new distribution channels, which have now surpassed the 80,000 store mark. The expectation by the Management is to end 2024 with 100,000 stores.

There are two specific nuances that are worth contextualizing with the growing store count:

• More than 70% of the contracted stores have opted for premiums positioning of NJOY, where the majority of the required fixture resets have not yet been executed. The expectation is that these investments will be carried out during H1, 2024, thus boosting the sales (via enhanced product visibility) further from the achieved levels so far.
• MO is still in the process of rolling out a NJOY's first large-scale retail visibility / trade program, which should introduce an additional tailwind for NJOY.

On top of these positive dynamics, which clearly support the growth potential here, MO has already made decent progress in the current result. The retail share of NJOY continued to advance for several quarters in a row. For example, the retail share of NJOY reached 4.3%, which translates to an increase of 0.6% (a meaningful rate of change considering the level of base value / share).

Another positive factor to underscore is some encouraging signals at the broader policymaking end. In the most recent earnings call, Billy Gifford - Chief Executive Officer - gave a nice color in this context

There is still significant work ahead that we saw some encouraging actions in the first quarter. In the first quarter alone, the FDA, in collaboration with the US Customs and Border Protection, issued over 450 e-vapor related import refusals, up from 348 during all of last year. The agency also continued to levy civil monetary penalties and send warning letters to manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers of illicit products.

Besides the excellent trajectory of NJOY's growth, the other two segments of MO also performed in a somewhat decent manner. The oral tobacco category grew by 4.6% in terms of the underlying OCI generation. The adjusted OCI margin came in also a bit better than in the previous quarter - expanding by 0.2%. The smokable category, however, as expected, continued to register declining volumes (e.g., the adjusted cigarette volumes declined by 10% in the first quarter). Yet, what helped offset the negative impact of a sharp decline in sold volumes was MO's pricing policy, where it achieved a net price realization of 8.5%, which is materially above the Q4, 2023 statistics at 5.5%. So, the net effect of worsening smokable category was not that significant and in the context of solid performance at NJOY and oral tobacco end, the total results came in at solid levels (i.e., a minor decline, which is explained by the seasonality factor).

As a result of a strong momentum in MO's growth segments, the Management has revised the guidance by increasing the bottom-line result of 2024 by 1%.

If we look at the capital allocation front, the balance sheet remains robust at debt to EBITDA of 2.1 times. Plus, since MO managed to monetize part of its stake in ABI, the share buybacks have been quite notable during this quarter. In addition, MO expanded its share repurchase program to $3.4 billion from $2.4 billion was already implemented under the accelerated share repurchase program. Also, because the cash payout ratio is so conservative, MO was able to utilize part of the retained cash in further debt reduction activities, retiring $1.1 billion of notes that came due in the first quarter.

Finally, despite the recent run-up in the share, MO's valuations still look enticing across the board, with the FWD P/CF remaining at 8.7x.

Seeking Alpha

The bottom line

The Q1, 2024 results clearly confirm the attractiveness of MO's investment case. Based on the current fundamentals and the financial performance, in my opinion, there is a sufficient basis of data for us to conclude that MO is not just about high yield, but also about a rather solid price appreciation aspect as well.

From the pure dividend investor's perspective, the Stock is very attractive as the current yield is still attractive enough at ~ 8.4% and underpinned by a fortress balance sheet and stable cash flows.

Yet, the growth aspect of MO is also there as we can infer from the fact that MO retains roughly 40% of its cash generation, which could be channeled towards incremental share buybacks, debt reduction or organic growth opportunities. It is also encouraging to see that NJOY is gaining the right traction and that the cash flow profile remains solid despite the multiple, which typically at these levels is associated with either very speculative businesses or businesses, which suffer a decrease in the cash generation.

As a result of this, Altria continues to be one of my favorite dividend stocks.

This article was written by

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MO either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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