Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

What was the Letter from Birmingham Jail?

Open letter written by MLK Jr. on April 16th 1963 in Birmingham jail. Spoke about how people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws.

-> a response to an open letter written by a coalition of white pastors who told the protestors to wait for the law to do its job

"In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action."

Dr. King outlines the steps that any group looking to engage in civil protest need to follow.

-> This is set up for when he outlines how the non-violent protestors in Birmingham didn't do anything wrong and it sets up his main argument as to the necessity of civil protest to bring about racial equality

"Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality [...] These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts"

The Birmingham Protestors followed step 1 and did their due diligence of researching before protesting

-> their research (and experiences) showed clear and obvious racial inequality in Birmingham that need to be corrected

"Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating sessions certain promises were made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores [...] [months later] we realized we were the victims of a broken promise [...] So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action"

The Birmingham Protestors followed step 2 and attempted negotiation with members of the political and economic communities of Birmingham, hoping to fix the problem without protest. However, resistance from obstinate store owners forced them to highlight the issue with a peaceful protest

"We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" and "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?"

The Birmingham protestors followed step 3 and made sure that they could effectively protest without snapping under the duress of resistance and police brutality and turning the protest violent

"Then it occurred to us that the March election was ahead, and so we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. Conner was in the runoff, we decided again to postpone action so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the day after the runoff."

Dr. King included this description of the protestor's considerations about the elections to show that they were reasonable and they had a small hope that change could be effected politically (another hope that was dashed), leading up to the protest.

"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. [...] the purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation"

Dr. King's main argument is that Non-violent protest is essential to bring about change in Birmingham and around the country because (as shown by the accounts Dr. King previously brought it) other means of change haven't been effective, as they have faced resistance at every turn

"Some have asked, "Why didn't you give the new administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it acts. [...] My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure

Dr King addresses the open letter written by 8 white clergymen, telling him to let the law resolve the issue of racial inequality on its own by saying that the law won't do that without being prompted at every turn, saying that this is how it's been in the past, and saying that civil protests and lawsuits have been the only methods by which legal change has been achieved