When a Chinese student stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, unflinching in his democratic convictions, he was symbolically acting upon the teachings of Dr. King as elucidated in his fearless Birmingham letter. President John F. Kennedy invited the group to Washington, D.C. With the clergy gathered around him, Kennedy sat in a rocking chair and urged them to further racial process in Birmingham and bring the moral strength of religion to bear on the issue. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly: "Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. Our weather-climate system is intricately connected to every aspect of our daily lives. As an activist challenging an entrenched social system, he argued on legal, political, and historical grounds. C. Herbert Oliver, an activist, in 1963, and was recently donated to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. It was that letter that prompted King to draft, on this day, April 16, the famous document known as Letter From a Birmingham Jail. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a letter from Birmingham jail on April 16, 1963. Magazines, Digital The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. King read the statement in his jail cell, and on the margins of the paper began his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." He did not disagree when it came to the utility of negotiation, but he understood that without direct action, power asymmetry would favor the established and unjust power structure, making negotiation for tangible gains impossible. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. It was Good Friday. Altogether, King's letter was a powerful defense of the motivations, tactics, and goals of the Birmingham campaign and the Civil Rights Movement more generally. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. But they feared the demonstrations would lead to violence and felt the newly elected city government could achieve progress peacefully. The logical and well put together letter was written as a response to a statement in the newspaper, which was written by some clergymen. He was arrested for defying an injunction issued by a judge suppressing their rights to protest. King announced that he would ignore it, led some 1,000 Negroes toward the business district. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his letter from the Birmingham jail cell in response to criticisms made by a group clergymen who claimed that, while they agreed with King's ultimate aims. 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 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.' He was a senior in high school. Local civilians have recycled and repurposed war material. Kings letter has grown in stature and significance with the passage of time. On this anniversary of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail," public readings of the document are taking place across the world. "[22] Even some just laws, such as permit requirements for public marches, are unjust when they are used to uphold an unjust system. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the eight days he spent in jail for marching in a banned protest. . The image burnished into national memory is the Dr. King of I Have a Dream, delivered more than 50 years ago in Washington, D.C. 10 Things You May Not Know About Martin Luther King Jr, For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant Wait and See. It is one of the greatest works of political theology in the 20th century. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. They were arrested and held in solitary confinement in the Birmingham jail where King wrote his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail." King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were "outsiders" causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. uses the letter to address the clergy and defend his strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and oppression. Martin Luther King Jr. began writing his Letter From Birmingham Jail, directed at eight Alabama clergy who were considered moderate religious leaders. These pages of poetry and justice now stand as one of the supreme 20th-century instruction manuals of self-help on how Davids can stand up to Goliaths without spilling blood. That eventful year was climaxed by the award to King of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December. 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. King first dispensed with the idea that a preacher from Atlanta was too much of an outsider to confront bigotry in Birmingham, saying, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. When King spent his nine days in the Birmingham jail, it was one of the most rigidly segregated cities in the South, although African Americans made up 40 percent of the population. We need the same sense of urgency and action on the climate crisis. 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. He led students to march. With racial tension high, King began nonviolent protests before Easter, but the campaign was struggling. (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers). His epic response still echoes through. 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. Dr. In his famous 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. answered nine criticisms published against him and his supporters. Just as Dr. King had been inspired by Henry David Thoreaus essay Civil Disobedience, written in a Massachusetts jail to protest the Mexican-American War, a new generation of the globally oppressed embraced the letter as a source of courage and inspiration. 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. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. After the assassination of King, Durick gave a three-minute eulogy, along with widow Coretta Scott King and other speakers. The The Rev. King wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to a public statement by eight white clergymen appealing to the local black population to use the courts and not the streets to secure civil rights. I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind, said King in his acceptance speech. 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. [7] The citizens of Birmingham's efforts in desegregation caught King's attention, especially with their previous attempts resulting in failure or broken promises. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. While Dr. King was incarcerated he wrote a letter addressed to his fellow "Clergymen" scrutinizing the broke and unjust place they call home. King's famous 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail," published in The Atlantic as "The Negro Is Your Brother," was written in response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by. What is Martin Luther King, Jr., known for? But by fall it and the city of Birmingham became rallying cries in the civil rights campaign. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital 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". [6], The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham. 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. Thanks to Dr. Kings letter, Birmingham had become a clarion call for action by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, especially in the 1980s, when the international outcry to free Nelson Mandela reached its zenith. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Kings letter, with its criticism of the white clergy opposition, made them look as if they were opposed to the civil rights movement. Letter From Birmingham Jail 1 A U G U S T 1 9 6 3 Letter from Birmingham Jail . 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. Its the symbolic finale of the Birmingham movement. His epic response still echoes through American history. [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. King then states that he rarely responds to criticisms of his work and ideas. hide caption. So on Good Friday, he and several other organizers decided to get arrested. This past week a NOAA report pointed out that 20 climate disasters exceeding $1 billion in damage costs each happened in the 2021. [21] Segregation laws are immoral and unjust "because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. As an orator, he used many persuasive techniques to reach the hearts and minds of his audience. This is an excerpted version of that letter. Increasingly, public surveys signal that we have moved beyond misguided questions like Is climate change real? or Is it a hoax? It reminds me of the same skepticism some people exhibited at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic but now look at where we are (over 5.5 million deaths globally at the time of writing). 3. It's etched in my mind forever," he says. Today one would be hard-pressed to find an African novelist or poet, including Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, who had not been spurred to denounce authoritarianism by Kings notion that it was morally essential to become a bold protagonist for justice. "Project C" is also referred to as the Birmingham campaign. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is the answer to the clergymen's criticism of King and his actions. 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. Last week Connor and Police Chief Jamie Moore got an injunction against all demonstrations from a state court, TIME reported. King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, including hundreds of schoolchildren. He wrote, I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. In his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, King wrote: "But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a . 7). The 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon mission is celebrated July 20, 1999. The letter has been described as "one of the most important historical documents penned by a modern political prisoner",[1] and is considered a classic document of civil disobedience.[2][3][4][5]. While imprisoned, King penned an open letter now known as his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, a full-throated defense of the Birmingham protest campaign that is now regarded as one of the greatest texts of the civil rights movement. [27] Regarding the Black community, King wrote that we need not follow "the 'do-nothingism' of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the Black nationalist. They flavor us over time creating tribes and silos. hide caption, Martin Luther King Jr., with the Rev. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. And so, with America again seemingly just as divided as it was in the 60s, here are five things that we should all take away from King's letter that I hope will bring us closer. They got a ton of hate mail from segregationists. 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. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling. [32] The complete letter was first published as "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" by the American Friends Service Committee in May 1963[33][34] and subsequently in the June 1963 issue of Liberation,[35] the June 12, 1963, edition of The Christian Century,[36] and the June 24, 1963, edition of The New Leader. King wrote the first part of the letter on the margins of a newspaper, which was the only paper available to him. The old city jail looks abandoned. He could assume the identity of the Apostle Paul and write this letter from a jail cell to Christians, Bass said. They were widely hailed for being among the most progressive religious leaders in the South, Bass said. On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy led a march of some 50 black protestors through Birmingham, Alabama. - 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. [24], King expressed general frustration with both white moderates and certain "opposing forces in the Negro community". They were arrested and held in solitary confinement in the Birmingham jail where King wrote his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail.". Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist from Georgia. 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. Open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr, Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, In a footnote introducing this chapter of the book, King wrote, "Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative of polishing it.". Dr. King, who was born in 1929, did his undergraduate work at [31] Extensive excerpts from the letter were published, without King's consent, on May 19, 1963, in the New York Post Sunday Magazine. Yet by the time Dr. King was murdered in Memphis five years later, his philosophy had triumphed and Jim Crow laws had been smashed. Compared to other movements at the time, King found himself as a moderate. 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 following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guaranteed voting rights to minorities and outlawed segregation and racial discrimination in all places of public accommodation. Answered over 90d ago. King got a copy of the newspaper, read their letter in jail, and began writing a response on scraps of paper. "[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. Ed Ramage of First Presbyterian Church. Written as a response to a letter published by eight white clergymen who denounced King's work as "unwise and untimely," King delivered, under trying circumstances, a work of exceptional lucidity and moral force (King). Martin Luther King Jr., right are taken by a policeman as they led a line of demonstrators into the business section of Birmingham, Ala., on April 12, 1963. In January 1963, those same clergy had signed a letter in response to Gov. 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. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. King cited Martin Buber and Paul Tillich with further examples from the past and present of what makes laws just or unjust: "A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. However, in his devotion to his cause, King referred to himself as an extremist. Letter From Birmingham City Jail would eventually be translated into more than 40 languages. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Fifty-five years ago, on April 16, 1963, the Rev. "[25], In the closing, King criticized the clergy's praise of the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. Why did Dr King write the letter from Birmingham? King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create "constructive" tension. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. He is talking to the clergyman that they have no choice because they have been ignoring the fact that they can express unhappiness. 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. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider", King writes: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. An intensely disciplined Christian, Dr. King was able to mold a modern manifesto of nonviolent resistance out of the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi. 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. "People risked their lives here," says Jim Baggett, archivist for the Birmingham Public Library. 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. Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Letter is an intimate snapshot of a King most people don't know, scholars say King once hated whites, and his anger is on . It's etched in my mind forever," he says. Ralph D. Abernathy, were promptly thrown into jail.. Their desire to be active in fighting against racism is what made King certain that this is where he should begin his work. In the letter, King appeals for unity against racism in society, while he wants to fight for Human Rights, using ethos. While there, he was the subject of criticism by eight white clergymen, who called his protests and demonstrations "unwise and untimely." In response, King wrote a letter from Birmingham City Jail, noting, "I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the . King was in jail for about a week before being released on bond, and it was clear that TIMEs editors werent the only group that thought he had made a misstep in Birmingham. Carpenter, Episcopal Bishop Co-Adjutor George M. Murray, Methodist Bishop Paul Hardin and the Rev. U.S. Here the crowds were uplifted by the emotional strength and prophetic quality of Kings famous I Have a Dream speech, in which he emphasized his faith that all men, someday, would be brothers. 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. We were there with about 1,500-plus. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail for protesting the treatment of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. "I was invited" by our Birmingham affiliate "because injustice is here" in what is probably the most racially-divided city in the country, with its brutal police, unjust courts, and many "unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches". Kathy Lohr/NPR We can no longer sit idly by either as heat waves, hurricanes, and flooding ravage communities. Just two days after he got out of jail, King preached a version of the letter at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. Letter from Birmingham Jail is a response to. Its the only livable planet we have. In the newly uncovered audio, the civil rights leader preaches that America cannot call itself an exceptional nation until racial injustice is addressed, and segregation ended: "If we will pray together, if we will work together, if we will protest together, we will be able to bring that day. At the beginning of May, leaders agreed to use young people in their demonstrations. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat read more, The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space. Dr. King wrote this epic letter on April 16th, 1963 as a political prisoner. The eight clergy have been pilloried in history for their stance. Why was the letter from Birmingham written? King wrote the letter in response to a set of messages received from religious leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, after he had been arrested for protesting racial segregation laws. 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 started writing the letter from his jail cell, then polished and rewrote it in subsequent drafts, addressing it as an open letter to the eight Birmingham clergy. King reaches out to clergy that do not support his ideas and methods for equality. Source (s) 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. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched read more. "I'll never forget the time or the date. "[17], The clergymen also disapproved of the timing of public actions. The National Park Service has designated Sweet Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, where Dr. King lived and is buried, a historic district. Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives At least thats what TIME thought: in the April 19 issue of that year, under the headline Poorly Timed Protest, the magazine cast King as an outsider who did not consult the citys local activists and leaders before making demands that set back Birminghams progress and drew Bull Connors ire. '"[18] Along similar lines, King also lamented the "myth concerning time" by which white moderates assumed that progress toward equal rights was inevitable and so assertive activism was unnecessary. "[16], The clergymen also disapproved of tensions created by public actions such as sit-ins and marches. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. He compares his work to that of the early Christians, especially the Apostle Paul, who traveled beyond his homeland to spread the Christian gospel. They needed large numbers to fill the jails and force white Birmingham to listen. "[21] In terms of obedience to the law, King says citizens have "not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws" and also "to disobey unjust laws".