Expanding Democracy in the United States

Type your answer in the blank and click Check Answer.

First, create a short answer response that identifies the type of format that is used to organize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail: Cause-and-effect format, sequential or comparative. Note, more than one type of organization can be identified. Next, explain how the form or forms of organization help you better understand the document.

Answer: You should have identified that this letter is organized in both a cause-and-effect format and comparative format. In using a cause-and-effect format, the author notes, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”

The author also uses a series of comparisons to make his points. For example, he compared the injustice suffered by African Americans to the early founders of Christianity. He compared the time that African Americans have waited for civil rights to others in Africa and Asia. He also compared their practice of civil disobedience with early Christians in ancient Rome and during the Boston Tea Party.