Lauren Johnson

English 1A
Week 5 Assignment
February 10, 2016

Baca and King

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a diamond in the rough writer who shares his experience about
his incarceration in prison and how he blossomed into a known author. Singing at the Gates is a
collection of poems telling Bacas story from being illiterate to finding himself and his purpose
and using his words to shine a light on racial injustices. Baca grew up ding the Chicano civil
rights movement in the 1960s. He claims he was falsely charged for drugs that resulted in his
prison sentence. It is very obvious that his environment of racial prejudice is his motivation to
become a writer. Baca uses his poems to communicate social injustice and expresses his position
about oppression. He also writes about nature, love, and migration.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who inspired a movement that will always be
remembered in history. In Letters from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King writes a persuading letter
to the clergy declaring social injustice against African Americans. King uses Henry David
Thoreaus idea of civil disobedience to make a statement about racial inequality. King and
Baca are both powerful writers who use many arguments to support their claims for justice for
their people. Both authors use a variety of tactics and allusions to validate their beliefs that all
men are connected to one another and therefore are responsible for one another. King and Baca
are heroes who defended their culture with powerful words and poems.