Letter from a Birmingham jail is an open letter that was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 16 1963. Dr. Luther wrote the letter in defence of nonviolent resistance to racism (Ali-Dinar). The letter became an instant favourite with the American Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960 immediately it was published. Dr. King argued that people have a moral responsibility to defy and break laws that are unjust.
Dr. King wrote the letter from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He had been arrested on April 12 1963 and placed in the jail for announcing that he and other civil rights leaders would disobey a court injunction that prohibiting trespassing, demonstrating, parading, boycotting and picketing. On the day Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Aberthany and other marchers were arrested, someone smuggled in a newspaper that bore a statement by eight white Alabama-based clergymen who were against Dr. King and his methods of agitating for justice in the society. Dr. King wrote a letter from a Birmingham Jail as a response to this newspaper statement.
In the letter, Dr. King wrote that all states and communities were interrelated. He asserted that, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Ali-Dinar). King expressed his opinion that anyone who lived within the borders of the United States was never supposed to be called an outsider.
In their letter, the Alabama clergymen had disproved of King’s demonstrations claiming that Dr. King caused immense tension. Dr. King responded to this claim by stating that he led demonstrators to use nonviolent but direct action to create necessary tension that would make the wider community bold enough to face the injustices in their society (Ali-Dinar).
The clergymen also criticised of the timing of the demonstrations. Dr. King responded being told to wait for God-given rights was tantamount to denial of the rights.
Conclusion
A letter from a Birmingham Jail is a letter that was written by American civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King on April 16 1963. He wrote the letter in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama as a response to a statement by white clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King asserted that all people in the US deserved to be treated with equal justice. He also stated that he and his fellow demonstrators used nonviolent means to agitate for justice and that the timing of the demonstrations was right.
References
Ali-Dinar, Ali. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]." African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013.
