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Questions/Prompts for Discussion of King essay
 

 

 1. Do a freewrite in which you imagine yourself as one of the white clergymen he was writing to and write a letter to the editor in which you respond to him. In order to respond, think about which of King’s arguments you think you would find most and least effective and why.

2. Is racism no longer a relevant today? Is MLK’s letter no longer important? Do some people still make the same arguments about various race issues today that the white clergymen made back in the early 1960's?

3. What might Didion say about King.  See excerpts below to prompt your response:

King:  I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. (147)

Didion:  I do not have the right, even if I had the power, to inflict that unreasonable conscience upon you; nor do I want you to inflict your conscience, however, reasonable, however enlightened, upon me.... The ethic of conscience is intrinsically insidious. (182)

Didion:  We have no way of knowing–beyond that fundamental loyalty to the social code–what is "right" and what is "wrong," what is "good" and what "evil." (182)

   
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