Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses points in his essay “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that are just as viable today as they were during the Civil Rights Movement.  African American citizens are still fighting for equal rights and equal treatment under the law, specifically through movements like Black Lives Matter.  Today Mass Media plays a profound role in African Americans’ fight for equality.  As we live in an era of technology, news stations spread the word about a violent protest much faster than ever before.  When a race crime is committed and broadcasted it spreads like wildfire so more people are likely to have a reaction to it.  Dr. King’s explanation of just versus unjust laws and African American oppression are still relevant to today’s society with several accusations of police brutality towards blacks.

Dr. King takes a strong stance on advocating for just laws, and going against unjust laws.  He believes in doing what is morally acceptable even if it means paying the consequences of jail time.  For King, advocating for just laws means laws of equality.  He fights unjust laws that are put in place only to keep certain groups down.  Throughout history people in power have been creating unfair laws to allow for the suppression of people.  Therefore, leaders have followed the law, but it is because they create it.  Following the rules does not necessarily make someone a good person and breaking them does not make someone a bad person.  Martin Luther King broke the law several times during his life, yet he is one of the most peaceful most respectable people in American history.  As a 1963 article covering the Birmingham campaign explained it, Dr. King and his followers participated in “economic boycott of businesses, sit-ins, church kneel-ins, picketing, mass marches, defiance of court injunctions, and mass arrests of demonstrators, which filled local jails” (Friedman and Richardson 224).  Each of their protests was done with intent to draw attention to the unjust segregation of the area and push for a change towards equality.  The protestors remained peaceful.  But their opposers, specifically police officers like Bull Connor, were the ones who began the violence, beating protestors and having their dogs attack them.  It is easy for the police to then claim that the protest was a violent one because it did get out of hand, but it was by no means the fault of the protestors.  It was not unjust for King and his supporters to protest for what they believed was right, but it was unjust for them to be attacked and imprisoned for being peaceful.  White police officers, like Bull Connor, were imprisoning African Americans all over the country with no reason to back it up.  Whether they were protesting or accused of committing a crime they did not do, African Americans were being persecuted and Dr. King knew it had to stop.  As King puts it, “such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest” (384).  There comes a point when people cannot handle repression any longer.  The protestors were simply protesting to protect their rights as citizens of the United States, yet they were treated as criminals in their own country.  King proved that breaking the law is not something only criminals do.  Sometimes it must be done in order to bring about justice for a problem which in this case was African American suppression.  Denying someone their rights as an American citizen is a more severe crime than following laws that allow for inequality.

Today in 2016, and in recent years, King’s ideal of nonviolent protests is being seen less frequently and it has a lot to do with oppression.  It has been over fifty years since Dr. King’s protests in Birmingham and African Americans are still struggling with equality in the United States.  There have been several instances in the past decade of white police officers killing innocent black men, and black communities are becoming enraged.  Tensions have been increasing significantly and it is becoming harder and harder to protest peacefully when it does not accomplish anything.  Black Lives Matter protests that were meant to be peaceful turn into violent battles between the protestors and law enforcement officers.  King claims in his essay, “If [protestors] repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history” (387).  If being nonviolent does not get the protests point across, often violence will.  Violent protests in recent history have been extremely destructive to the towns they occur in, law enforcement officers, innocent civilians, and the protestors themselves.  Although it is frustrating not seeing results from nonviolent protests, people often turn to violence which only creates more destruction.  Protestors feel that they need to fight for the innocent black lives lost.  However, a person can only be peaceful for so long without seeing any change.  Tension is a key point in King’s protests, negotiation itself is not enough to have segregation addressed.  King’s aim with direct nonviolent action was to do protests that would directly affect a great majority of the community so they find it necessary to get something done about the issue, to make it something that must be addressed.  Protests today are often followed by extreme violence including looting and destruction of towns because African Americans are fed up with not seeing results from peaceful protests.  Even Martin Luther King who advocated for nonviolence would understand people’s frustrations today and possibly even their reasoning for protesting the way they do.  

In today’s world of technology, mass media has a huge part in broadcasting protests.   Society today is obsessed with violence: violent video games, violent movies, violent television shows.  People thrive on it because it gets their attention.  It is no surprise that the vast majority of news stories are about a horrific house fire or murder.  The media is far more likely to cover a peaceful protest turned violent than a picketing protest because it is more exciting in the news world today.  Nobody wants to turn on the television and see people walking around holding signs.  They are more interested in riots and looting, as morbid as it may sound.  Media played a role in the Birmingham protests of 1963 as well.   It’s coverage displayed “the clash between authorities and demonstrators helped transform public policy, too. Kennedy was said to have been sickened by images of police brutality” (Friedman and Richardson 225).  Even though it was half a century apart, violence still gets the most attention by news stations.  It was not the protests themselves that moved president Kennedy, it was the police brutality that caught his attention.  The same can be said for almost all American citizens then and now.  The media’s involvement in 1963 was on a much smaller scale than it is today, but it was still focused on broadcasting violence.    It is reaching people of all ages.   The difference between the media then and now is that “once we would see only a grainy newspaper photograph or an edited clip on television. Now our laptops and smartphones immerse us in the full unfolding of human trauma” (Miller 1).  Humans today are enveloped with technology like never before, so media plays an even larger role than it did during the Civil Rights Movement, making it nearly impossible to ignore the problems our society faces.  Today the news reaches every corner of our world, it is covering our cellphones, televisions, newspapers, laptops.  Seeing the horrific images of places like Ferguson, Missouri only add fuel to the fire, making the race issues impossible to ignore.  It often portrays protests in a negative light, making the protestors look like savages, but nobody knows their struggle or how the protest truly started out.  Media’s role in today’s society has a direct correlation with how protests are carried out.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes in his essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail” about the importance of laws and when they should and should not be obeyed.  Protests have evolved since they were led by Dr. King and a great deal of it has to do with how the media portrays violence and negativity.  Violent protests get better ratings than nonviolent protests and that is all the media cares about.  Victim’s communities and loved ones have emerged to stand up for the wrongful deaths of innocent African American men by those who were supposed to be protecting them.  Unfortunately, the issues Martin Luther King Jr. addresses during the Civil Rights sgeMovement are still very much so relevant to todays society.  

 