Letters from a Birmingham Jail

https://nul.org/news/letter-birmingham-jail

Author (Letters from a Birmingham Jail)

Martin Luther King Jr.

Purpose (Letters from a Birmingham Jail)

Illustrate how the 14th Amendments Equal Protection clause supported social movements

Focus (Letters from a Birmingham Jail)

Defined the Civil Rights Movement as a social movement for the Equality of Black Americans

Context

• MLK argued for peaceful protest despite knowing state officials would violate the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment

• In 1963, MLK campaigned to desegregate Birminghams shopping district and got arrested

• A group of sympathetic whites wrote in the newspaper calling Blacks to stop peaceful protest & wait for white people to “handle it themselves”

• The document itself, MLK’s letter from prison, is a response to the white-written newspaper letter

“…Dramatize the issue that can no longer be ignored”

“…Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed”

“Justice too long delayed is justice denied”

Repetitive arguments from MLK that justified why he protested. He once again reinstated that the Civil Rights Movement was a social movement and very important to those who thought otherwise.

Why did MLK claim he hated “moderate whites” more than he did the KKK?

• He criticized the moderates not for their racism like “letting the whites handle it”, but rather their moderation

• “The white moderate is more devoted to order than injustice”

“Abused and scorned we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson (constitution), we were here.”

The African Americans in this country are demanding of what this country stands for, despite being denied it for centuries and being present through the founding of the country for the very same freedom.

“We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are emobied in our echoing demands”

The story of how America was founded and our history aligns with winning freedom, and it is also with God on their side.