Martin Luther King Jr.

I found King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" really interesting for multiple reasons. His idea of using "direct action" to create tension that leads to negotiations and results. This is brilliant and I loved the explanation that he made to the clergy that he was writing to. He turned their argument completely around. First, he discussed their viewpoint (that only negotiation should be used to produce results) and then he discusses that direct action actually leads to negotiation. He discusses how negotiation alone has not worked in the past and direct action is his response to that.
I also liked how King discussed the idea of waiting for things to get better instead of acting on it. It made me think about the lack of action in the literature that we have been reading. Either the authors plan on waiting for improvement, or they discuss the problem without offering a solution. King not only offers a solution, but he has a plan to and is implementing it. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be for black people of the time to be told to "wait" for their rights. Doing this reading really impressed on me why so King appealed to so many people and was able to succeed where others had failed.