Bass in his book argued that Stallings and some of the other white clergy in many ways had been more thoughtful on racial issues than history has given them credit for. Baggett says the violence and brutality of the police here focused the country on what needed to change and ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Martin Luther King Jr., with the Rev. King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create "constructive" tension. Explore a summary and analysis of Dr . Our purpose when practicing civil disobedience is to call attention to the injustice or to an unjust law which we seek to change, he wroteand going to jail, and eloquently explaining why, would do just that. King got a copy of the newspaper, read their letter in jail, and began writing a response on scraps of paper. Grafman said the eight clergy were among Birminghams moderate leaders who were working for civil rights. Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling. Even conservative Republican William J. Bennett included Letter From Birmingham City Jail in his Book of Virtues. 7). The logical and well put together letter was written as a response to a statement in the newspaper, which was written by some clergymen. 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. And it still is," Baggett says. King announced that he would ignore it, led some 1,000 Negroes toward the business district. Letter From Birmingham City Jail would eventually be translated into more than 40 languages. 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. The SCC, a white civic organization, had agreed during this meeting to remove all "Whites Only" signs from downtown department stores, however failed to carry this promise through. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. 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. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. And if Bill Haley was not exactly the revolutions read more, On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. On read more, On April 12, 1633, chief inquisitor FatherVincenzo Maculani da Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. The "letter of Birmingham Jail" was written by Martin Luther King on April 16, 1963. 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. Why was Martin Luther King arrested in Birmingham for? Birmingham in 1963 was a hard place for blacks to live in. During the Cold War, Czechoslovakias Charter 77, Polands Solidarity and East Germanys Pastors Movement all had Letter From Birmingham City Jail translated and disseminated to the masses via the underground. King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were "outsiders" causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. This is the photograph that ran with TIME's original coverage of their arrests. I had hoped, King wrote at one point, that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Martin Luther King Jr. began writing the "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" in the margins of newspapers, on scraps of paper, paper towels and slips of yellow legal paper smuggled into . First of all, King needed a way to continue the fight. '"[18] Declaring that African Americans had waited for the God-given and constitutional rights long enough, King quoted "one of our distinguished jurists" that "justice too long delayed is justice denied. He addressed the letter to eight white Alabama pastors who opposed his . There are two types of laws, just and unjust, wrote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from jail on Easter weekend, 1963. "[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". "I'll never forget the time or the date. [14] Referring to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated, King wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Many of us are shaped by our race, faith, ideological, geographic, cultural, or other marinades. King expresses his belief that his actions during the Human Right Movement were not "untimely," and that he is not an "outsider.". He explains that there are four steps . 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. (Photo by Gado/Getty Images), TOPSHOT - People react as a sudden rain shower, soaks them with water while riding out of a flooded neighborhood in a volunteer high water truck assisting people evacuating from homes after neighborhoods flooded in LaPlace, Louisiana on August 30, 2021 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. "[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. He implored people of all races, particularly the racial majority, to take a stand against race-biased laws and to act on behalf of justice. As an African American, he spoke of the country's oppression of Black people, including himself. Police mugshot of Martin Luther King Jr following, his arrest for protests in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963. The time for justice is always now. 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. Fred Shuttlesworth, defied an injunction against protesting on Good Friday in 1963. 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. In Cambodia, the U.S. ambassador and his staff leave Phnom Penh when the U.S. Navy conducts its evacuation effort, Operation Eagle. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. 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. Why did Dr King write the letter from Birmingham? Answered over 90d ago. But they feared the demonstrations would lead to violence and felt the newly elected city government could achieve progress peacefully. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. 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. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Banks, businesses and government offices are closed to honor the civil rights martyr every January. Its the symbolic finale of the Birmingham movement. 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. In response, King said that recent decisions by the SCLC to delay its efforts for tactical reasons showed that it was behaving responsibly. A Maryland woman helped piece together Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous " Letter from Birmingham Jail ." King wrote the letter in 1963 as a response to eight clergymen who. The Rev. On April 3, 1963, the Rev. 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. In 1963 a group of clergymen published an open letter to Martin Luther King Jr., calling nonviolent demonstrations against segregation "unwise and untimely.". A recent bipartisan infrastructure bill is a start, but other climate-related legislation is languishing in partisan bickering. An editor at The New York Times Magazine, Harvey Shapiro, asked King to write his letter for publication in the magazine, but the Times chose not to publish it. 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. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? The force of the water was so strong it peeled off clothing, shredded skin and tossed children down the streets. 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. 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. The eight clergy have been pilloried in history for their stance. He insists that people have the moral responsibility to break unjust laws in a peaceful manner. Dr. Kings letter had to be smuggled out of the jail in installments by his attorneys, arriving thought by thought at the Southern Christian Leadership Conferences makeshift nerve center at the Gaston Motel. He could assume the identity of the Apostle Paul and write this letter from a jail cell to Christians, Bass said. hide caption. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well timed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. King also advocated for violating unjust laws and urged that believers in organized religion [break] loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity. All told, the lengthy letter constituted a defense of nonviolent protest, a call to push the issue of civil rights, and a rallying cry for fence-sitters to join the fight, even if it meant that they, too, might end up in jail. Dr. King and many civil rights leaders were in Birmingham as a part of a coordinated campaign of sit-ins and. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman. For me, this is a statement of unity. These readers were published for college-level composition courses between 1964 and 1968.[39]. They were in basic agreement with King that segregation should end. Anticipating the claim that one cannot determine such things, he again cited Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas by saying any law not rooted in "eternal law and natural law" is not just, while any law that "uplifts human personality" is just. "[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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. April 16, 1963 As the events of the Birmingham Campaign intensified on the city's streets, Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in Birmingham in response to local religious leaders' criticisms of the campaign: "Never before have I written so long a letter. On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins Jr. issued a blanket injunction against "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing". Teachers: The "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" has been adopted by the Common Core curriculum as a crucial document in American history for students to understand, along with the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. They called King an "extremist" and told blacks they should be patient. Actually, we who engage in non-violent direct action are not the creators of tension. We need the same sense of urgency and action on the climate crisis. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Alabama segregationist Bull Connor ordered police to use dogs and fire hoses on black demonstrators in May 1963. From the Gado Modern Color series. [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. EARL STALLINGS, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives Dr. Kings remedy: nonviolent direct action, the only spiritually valid way to bring gross injustice to the surface, where it could be seen and dealt with. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. 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. The process of turning scraps of jailhouse newspaper and toilet paper into Letter From Birmingham Jail remains, in itself, a seminal achievement. Isnt negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for negotiation. 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 . All Rights Reserved. King wrote the letter as a reply to eight very prominent Alabama clergymen. 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. The recent public displays of nonviolence by the police were in stark contrast to their typical treatment of Black people and, as public relations, helped "to preserve the evil system of segregation". (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers). As an activist challenging an entrenched social system, he argued on legal, political, and historical grounds. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched read more. I am often frustrated as things happen around us that we as scientists have warned for decades were coming. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. By April 12, King was in prison along with many of his fellow activists. As an orator, he used many persuasive techniques to reach the hearts and minds of his audience. 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. [21] King stated that it is not morally wrong to disobey a law that pertains to one group of people differently from another. 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. He is talking to the clergyman that they have no choice because they have been ignoring the fact that they can express unhappiness. 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. Local civilians have recycled and repurposed war material. But the time for waiting was over. "These eight men were put in the position of looking like bigots," Rabbi Grafman once said. A court had ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. 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. 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. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. Martin Luther King Jr. uses the letter to address the clergy and defend his strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and oppression. Magazines, Digital Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a letter from Birmingham jail on April 16, 1963. Make it clear to students . The correct answer is D. Martin Luther King's goal in writing "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was to "defend his techniques against ecclesiastical criticism." Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the letter to a group of white clergy who were criticizing MLK Jr.'s activities in Birmingham, Alabama. 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. 1. The In 1963, the Rev. 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. Lets explore three lessons from his letter that apply to the climate crisis today. The speech was recorded by the Rev. hide caption. 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. Climate change is a crisis disrupting agricultural productivity, public health, economic well-being, national security, water supply, and our infrastructure. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images), 376713 11: (FILE PHOTO) A view of the Earth, appears over the Lunar horizon as the Apollo 11 Command Module comes into view of the Moon before Astronatus Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. leave in the Lunar Module, Eagle, to become the first men to walk on the Moon's surface. His letter describes the shameful humiliation and inexpressible cruelties of American slavery, and just as Dr. King was forced to reduce his sacred thoughts to the profane words of the newspaper in order to triumph over injustice, African Americans would win their freedom someday because the sacred heritage of our nations and eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.. Yet by the time Dr. King was murdered in Memphis five years later, his philosophy had triumphed and Jim Crow laws had been smashed. The National Park Service has designated Sweet Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, where Dr. King lived and is buried, a historic district. What was Martin Luther Kings family life like? [28] Instead of the police, King praised the nonviolent demonstrators in Birmingham "for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. We have a commonality too - Earth. "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, describes a protest against his arrest for non-violent resistance to racism. Compared to other movements at the time, King found himself as a moderate. 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. As such, much of the letter takes the form of responding to objections to the actions of the Civil Rights activists. Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com. It was that letter that prompted King to draft, on this day, April 16, the famous document known as Letter From a Birmingham Jail. While Dr. King was incarcerated he wrote a letter addressed to his fellow "Clergymen" scrutinizing the broke and unjust place they call home. - [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. During his incarceration, Dr. King wrote his indelible "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" with a stubby pencil on the margins of a newspaper. [15] "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. We can no longer sit idly by either as heat waves, hurricanes, and flooding ravage communities. On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy led a march of some 50 black protestors through Birmingham, Alabama. 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. But their positions were more nuanced than that, said Samford professor Jonathan Bass, whose 2001 book, Blessed are the Peacemakers, focuses on the writing of Kings letter and the personal stories of the eight clergy King addressed. [7] The citizens of Birmingham's efforts in desegregation caught King's attention, especially with their previous attempts resulting in failure or broken promises. 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. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. C. Herbert Oliver, an activist, in 1963, and was recently donated to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau each write exemplary persuasive essays that depict social injustice and discuss civil disobedience, which is the refusal to comply with the law in order to prove a point. The Eight White Clergymen who wrote "A Call for Unity," an open letter that criticized the Birmingham protests, are the implied readers of King 's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." King refers to them as "My Dear Fellow Clergymen," and later on as "my Christian and Jewish brothers." The clergy members told him that civil disobedience was only useful until it became dangerous and then it was time for people to return to peace and quiet. His epic response still echoes through American history. King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly: You cannot criticize the protest without first understanding the cause of it. The United Auto Workers paid Kings $160,000 bail, and he was released from jail on April 20. Both King and one of his top aides, the Rev. Published on April 17, 2014 by Jack Brymer Share this on: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Samford University history professor Jonathan Bass called it "the most important written document of the Civil Rights Era." Speaking at the dedication of an historic marker outside the . We need dialogue (and action) now. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the matter, but if not at that moment then when would it have been done. Kings letter has grown in stature and significance with the passage of time. The Set-Up. 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. Pastor Wyatt Tee Walker and his secretary Willie Pearl Mackey then began compiling and editing the literary jigsaw puzzle. [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 protest because it causes tension, and tension causes change. The Rev. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. 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. Dr. King wrote, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. 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. After being arrested in downtown Birmingham on a Good Friday, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous letter, "A Letter From Birmingham Jail" responding to the criticism demonstrated by eight prominent white clergy . 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. 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 . Today on 6th Avenue South in Birmingham, a three-story cement building with peeling paint is almost hidden from the busy street. King highlighted commonalities within a cloud of tense disagreement. 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. Segregationist Bull Connor had just lost a runoff election in Birmingham, but he was still in charge of law enforcement. Letter from Birmingham Jail is a response to. Dr. King was arrested and sent to jail for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. This article was written by Douglas Brinkley and originally published in August 2003 issue of American History Magazine. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.. Archbishop Desmond Tutu quoted the letter in his sermons, Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley kept the text with him for good luck, and Ghanas Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumahs children chanted from it as though Dr. Kings text were a holy writ.