They flavor us over time creating tribes and silos. King writes in Why We Can't Wait: "Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly Black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. "[22] Even some just laws, such as permit requirements for public marches, are unjust when they are used to uphold an unjust system. Summarize the following passage in 25-50 words: From Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail": "In a. Reprinted in "Reporting Civil Rights, Part One", (pp. Students will analyze Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "The Letter from a Birmingham Jail," including the section in which he wrote "the Negroes' great stumbling block in the stride toward . He wrote this letter from his jail cell after him and several of his associates were arrested as they nonviolently protested segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. On April 3, 1975, as the communist Khmer Rouge forces closed in for the final assault on the capital city, U.S. forces were put on alert for the read more, On April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes awaypartway through his fourth term in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. We need the same sense of urgency and action on the climate crisis. What was Martin Luther Kings family life like? In his words . These eight men were put in the position of looking like bigots, Rabbi Grafman once said. It documents how frustrated he was by white moderates who kept telling blacks that this was not the right time: "And that's all we've heard: 'Wait, wait for a more convenient season.' King got a copy of the newspaper, read their letter in jail, and began writing a response on scraps of paper. He was arrested for defying an injunction issued by a judge suppressing their rights to protest. They were arrested and held in solitary confinement in the Birmingham jail where King wrote his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail.". On August 28, 1963, an interracial assembly of more than 200,000 gathered peaceably in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law. Even conservative Republican William J. Bennett included Letter From Birmingham City Jail in his Book of Virtues. He then wrote more on bits and pieces of paper given to him by a trusty, which were given to his lawyers to take back to movement headquarters. "Alone in jail, King plunges down into a kind of depression and panic combined," says Jonathan Rieder, a sociology professor at Barnard College who has written a new book on the letter called Gospel of Freedom. [10] An ally smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained "A Call for Unity", a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods. For example, students at Miles College boycotted local downtown stores for eight weeks, which resulted in a decrease in sales by 40% and two stores desegregating their water fountains. "[15] King also warned that if white people successfully rejected his nonviolent activists as rabble-rousing outside agitators, that could encourage millions of African Americans to "seek solace and security in Black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare. [19], Against the clergymen's assertion that demonstrations could be illegal, King argued that civil disobedience was not only justified in the face of unjust laws but also was necessary and even patriotic: "The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. Resonating hope in the valleys of despair, King's 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail' became a literary classic inspiring activists around the world, https://www.historynet.com/martin-luther-king-jrs-letter-from-birmingham-city-jail/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96, A Look at the Damage from the Secret War in Laos. Rieder says for King, that changes everything. [1] The authors of "A Call for Unity" had written "An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense" in January 1963. (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers). It is one of the greatest works of political theology in the 20th century. They attack King and call the protests "unwise and untimely." Martin Luther King Jr. uses the letter to address the clergy and defend his strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and oppression. A response directed toward 8 Alabama clergymen who released a statement toward King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had begun to flood into Birmingham to protest the awful civil rights . To begin the letter, King pens why he is in Birmingham and more importantly, why he is in jail. He compares his work to that of the early Christians, especially the Apostle Paul, who traveled beyond his homeland to spread the Christian gospel. Near the end of the Birmingham campaign, in an effort to draw together the multiple forces for peaceful change and to dramatize to the country and to the world the importance of solving the U.S. racial problem, King joined other civil rights leaders in organizing the historic March on Washington. The letter was written in response to his "fellow clergymen," stating that Dr. King's present activities was "unwise and untimely." The peaceful protest in Birmingham was perceived as being extreme. The reason why he did this was because he was hated on and wanted to tell his audience that we should do this together and that we are all Americans if what he is saying is not enough to believe him. Need more proof that the original letter was convincing? The decision prompted King to write, in a statement, that though he believed the Supreme Court decision set a dangerous precedent, he would accept the consequences willingly. "[18] Listing numerous ongoing injustices toward Black people, including himself, King said, "Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, 'Wait. His supporters did not, however, include all the Black clergy of Birmingham, and he was strongly opposed by some of the white clergy who had issued a statement urging African Americans not to support the demonstrations. King highlighted commonalities within a cloud of tense disagreement. Why was the letter from Birmingham written? 5 Things We Can Learn from Rev. Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling. So its hard to conjure up the 34-year-old in a narrow cell in Birmingham City Jail, hunkered down alone at sunset, using the margins of newspapers and the backs of legal papers to articulate the philosophical foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. "We will see all the facets of King that we know, but now we have the badass King and the sarcastic King, and we have the King who is not afraid to tell white people, 'This is how angry I am at you,' " Rieder says. After Rabbi Grafman retired, he remained in Birmingham until his death in 1995, but was always troubled by criticism he received for opposing Kings timing. King's letter, dated April 16, 1963,[12] responded to several criticisms made by the "A Call for Unity" clergymen, who agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail for protesting the treatment of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. "When we got on the cell block, cell blocks probably hold 600 people. - Rescuers on Monday combed through the "catastrophic" damage Hurricane Ida did to Louisiana, a day after the fierce storm killed at least two people, stranded others in rising floodwaters and sheared the roofs off homes. As Harrison Salisbury wrote in The New York Times, the streets, the water supply, and the sewer system were the only public facilities shared by both races. King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South. While Dr. King was incarcerated he wrote a letter addressed to his fellow "Clergymen" scrutinizing the broke and unjust place they call home. Grafman said the eight clergy were among Birminghams moderate leaders who were working for civil rights. King reaches out to clergy that do not support his ideas and methods for equality. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963 after he had been arrested for his role in nonviolent protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. I always try to make this point because too many people dont make the connections to their daily lives. On April 12, Good Friday, King and dozens of his fellow protestors were arrested for continuing to demonstrate in the face of an injunction obtained by Commissioner of Public Safety Theophilus Eugene Bull Connor. At the beginning of May, leaders agreed to use young people in their demonstrations. [27] It is wrong to use immoral means to achieve moral ends but also "to use moral means to preserve immoral ends". In their open letter published in The Birmingham News, they urged King not to go ahead with demonstrations and marches, saying such action was untimely after the election of a new city government. Although in the tumble of events then and since, it never got the notice it deserved, the magazine noted, it may yet live as a classic expression of the Negro revolution of 1963., Read excerpts from the letter, which was included in Martin Luther King Jrs Man of the Year cover story, here in the TIME Vault: Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail because he needed to keep fighting for the cause, was hugely saddened by the inaction and response of white religious leaders, and to put all the misunderstandings to rest. On April 12, 1963, those eight clergy asked King to delay civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. This is the photograph that ran with TIME's original coverage of their arrests. You have reached your limit of free articles. What is Martin Luther King, Jr., known for? U.S. Birmingham, Alabama, was known for its intense segregation and attempts to combat said racism during this time period. Fred Shuttlesworth, defied an injunction against protesting on Good Friday in 1963. After three days of fierce combat and over 10,000 casualties suffered, the Canadian Corps seizes the previously German-held Vimy Ridge in northern France on April 12, 1917. 100%. This article was written by Douglas Brinkley and originally published in August 2003 issue of American History Magazine. King announced that he would ignore it, led some 1,000 Negroes toward the business district. The final part of the letter (and you should consider reading it all for the King holiday of service) that I want to feature is this statement by Dr. King to his white clergy peers. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. George Wallace delivered his inaugural address with these fighting words: "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.". "We want to march for freedom on the day. [11] The letter provoked King, and he began to write a response to the newspaper itself. The letter was not published immediately. By April 12, King was in prison along with many of his fellow activists. Even after the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in September 1963, the group of white clergy was still looked to for leadership on racial issues. A court had ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. It is in our best interest to promote good stewardship of it and make sure it is that way for our kids and so on. He wrote, I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. [15] The tension was intended to compel meaningful negotiation with the white power structure without which true civil rights could never be achieved. They were arrested and held in solitary confinement in the Birmingham jail where King wrote his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail." Who did Martin Luther King, Jr., influence and in what ways? The notoriously violent segregationist police commissioner Bull Connor had lost his run-off bid for mayor, and despite Martin Luther King Jr.s declaration that the city was the most segregated in the nation, protests were starting to be met with quiet resignation rather than uproar. The man who had won the election, Albert Boutwell, was also a segregationist, and he was one of many who accused outsidershe clearly meant Kingof stirring up trouble in Birmingham. Senator Doug Jones (D-Alabama) led an annual bipartisan reading of the letter in the U.S. Senate during his tenure in the United States Senate in 2019 and 2020,[40][41] and passed the obligation to lead the reading to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) upon Jones' election defeat. We have a commonality too - Earth. Throughout the 1960s the very word Birmingham conjured up haunting images of church bombings and the brutality of Eugene Bull Connors police, snarling dogs and high-powered fire hoses. The worst of Connors brutalities came after the letter was written, but the Birmingham campaign succeeded in drawing national attention to the horrors of segregation. From the Birmingham jail, King wrote a letter of great eloquence in which he spelled out his philosophy of nonviolence: You may well ask: Why direct action? It's been five decades since Martin Luther King Jr., began writing his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," a response to eight white Alabama clergymen who criticized King and worried the civil rights campaign would cause violence. Alabama has used "all sorts of devious methods" to deny its Black citizens their right to vote and thus preserve its unjust laws and broader system of white supremacy. As he sat in a solitary jail cell without even a mattress to sleep on, King began to pen a response to his critics on some scraps of paper. [21] Segregation laws are immoral and unjust "because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. After being arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King wrote a letter that would eventually become one of the most important documents of the Civil Rights Movement. And the images that come out of here, it just, I think it seared into people's minds. Dr. King wrote, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. "[25], In the closing, King criticized the clergy's praise of the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. [6], The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham. But they feared the demonstrations would lead to violence and felt the newly elected city government could achieve progress peacefully. Few have ever heard it. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Fifty-five years ago, on April 16, 1963, the Rev. Colors may not be period-accurate. Connor, who had just lost the mayoral election, remains one of the most notorious pro-segregationists in American history thanks to the brutal methods his forces employed against the Birmingham protestors that summer. Dr. King believed that the clergymen had made a mistake in criticizing the protestors without equally examining the racist causes of the injustice that the protest was against. The letter gained more popularity as summer went on, and was reprinted in the July 1963 edition of The Progressive under the headline "Tears of Love" and the August 1963 edition[37] of The Atlantic Monthly under the headline "The Negro Is Your Brother". Alabama segregationist Bull Connor ordered police to use dogs and fire hoses on black demonstrators in May 1963. [6] The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) had met with the Senior Citizens Committee (SCC) following this protest in hopes to find a way to prevent larger forms of retaliation against segregation. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Furthermore, he wrote: "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."[20]. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. He wrote, "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension . You couldn't stand sideways. After reading an open letter from eight white clergymen in the local newspaper criticizing him and his fellow activists, MLK decided he might as well write back to let them know what was on his mind. Lets explore three lessons from his letter that apply to the climate crisis today. The objection was to making it seem as though these eight men were opposed to his goals.. In 1967, King ended up spending another five days in jail in Birmingham, along with three others, after their appeals of their contempt convictions failed. Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement, Riding Freedom: 10 Milestones in U.S. Civil Rights History. Answered over 90d ago. [2] He makes a clear distinction between both of them. [15] "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Trust me, they are there when you buy groceries or gasoline, turn your faucet on, consider your health, or watch relatives battered by storms like Hurricane Ida. a) The introductory essay stated that Martin Luther King Jr. and others were arrested on April 12, 1963 and that he spent more than a week in jail. class notes letter from the birmingham jail, martin luther king 29 august 2019 in his letter, martin luther king explores the injustices behind the laws that. But four days earlier, on April 12, 1963,. So on Good Friday, he and several other organizers decided to get arrested. Because King addressed his letter to them by name, they were put in the position of looking to posterity as if they opposed King's goals rather than the timing of the demonstration, Rabbi Grafman said. King wrote the first part of the letter on the margins of a newspaper, which was the only paper available to him. Its the exclamation point at the end., Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Isnt negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. On the day of his arrest, a group of clergymen wrote an open letter in which they called for the community to renounce protest tactics that caused unrest in the community, to do so in court and not in the streets. It was that letter that prompted King to draft, on this day, April 16, the famous document known as Letter From a Birmingham Jail. - [Narrator] What we're going to read together in this video is what has become known as Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which he wrote from a jail cell in 1963 after he and several of his associates were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama as they nonviolently protested segregation there. Many historians have pointed to the victory at Vimy Ridge during World War I as a moment of greatness for read more, During the American Civil War, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrests Confederate raiders attack the isolated Union garrison at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, overlooking the Mississippi River. In January, Gov. The eight clergy have been pilloried in history for their stance.