In his letter to local clergymen which he wrote from a jail in Birmingham Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave many examples to justify the breaking of Alabama state law. In the opening of his letter, he chastizes the local clergymen for focusing more on the effects of a problem, rather than focussing on the problem itself. If African Americans were given equal treatment to that of whites, the incidents preceeding King's arrest would …showed first 75 words of 439 total…

…showed last 75 words of 439 total…not have the unhampered right to vote." In the South, ridiculous tests, such as correctly guessing how many jelly beans were in a jar, determined whether or not a person of color was allowed to vote. Since it was true that in may counties throughout the South, African Americans made up the majority of citizens, and none of them were registered to vote, how then could, "... any law in such a state be concidered democratic?..."