What are 3 similarities between Antigone and "Letter From Birmingham Jail" as far as genre of Literature?

I do not see these two as being of the same
genre, but their similarities, in general, may
be what your son's teacher is looking for. I hope the following
helps.

The definition of "genre" according to
dictionary.com is:

readability="9">

a class or category of artistic endeavor having a
particular form, content, technique, or the like: the genre of epic
poetry

When we
think of genres, we think of books that are similar in nature or topic: mystery,
romance, children's fiction, etc.

Perhaps the use of the
word "genre" is used here in a more general way: classifying these two pieces of
literature in what they have in common (I am unaware of the name of a genre that would
reflect this).

However, in reviewing Dr. King's "Letter
From Birmingham Jail," and Sophocles' Antigone, I find that the
commonality is not in the kind of literature it is, but in the common themes both pieces
present to the reader.

The plot of the play
Antigone reflects a woman (a minority at the time) controlled by
social, political, religious, and gender-related norms of the era who is struggling to
do what is ethically right. She is demanding that King Creon allow her to bury her
brother Polyneices (who has been judged a traitor); if she cannot do so, the Greeks
believed his soul would wander the Earth for a hundred years before finding its rest. As
a woman, she has no power or influence. If searching for discrimination, I would hazard
to guess that had she been a man, she might have had more success with the leaders of
the male-dominated society of which she was a part.

In
"Letter From Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr., also a member of a minority,
implores the political and social leaders of the 1960s, to do the ethical and moral
thing by allowing blacks equal rights under the law. His concerns would not only have
lifted up the unfair treatment of blacks in terms of prejudice and segregation, but more
seriously with the murder of civil rights activists and innocents killed due to the
color of their skin, and nothing more.

The similarities of
the content of the two pieces are what make me see them as products of a genre that
challenges the status quo and demands that appropriate actions take place regarding what
is decent, ethical and morally correct.

Antigone never gets
the answer she wants. Dr. King, however, continued to fight for equality, and his
"dream" was realized with the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which outlawed
discrimination and segregation against blacks—and
women.

For three similarities:
each piece centers around the endeavors of a member of a minority group; both central
figures are trying to find justice; both figures are at a disadvantage because they lack
power and credibility among those in control at the time they lived because they
were minorities.

I hope this is of
some assistance. Best of luck.