Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary
Akeem Harris
Dr. Keith Huxen
HIST 202
October 5, 2009
Letter From Birmingham Jail Analysis “Letter from Birmingham Jail: April 16, 1963” was written by Dr. Martin Luther King in response to published statements denouncing his non-violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The article, composed on scraps of paper, in the margins of the newspaper and finally on writing pads (King, 1963) by Dr. King as he was incarcerated in Birmingham City Jail for participating in a series of non-violent protests, known as the Birmingham Campaign. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered“the most important written document of the modern civil rights movement and a classic text on civil disobedience”, primarily due to King’s impassioned defense of his confrontational tactics. (Bass, 2001 ) Initiated because of the response to the reluctance of the city to end segregation, the Birmingham Campaign, established Birmingham as the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. Considered a strategic movement to expose the inequality that Birmingham’s African-American citizens existed under began during the spring of 1963. Clashes between African-American teenagers and white Birmingham law enforcement officials became a mainstay in the national …show more content…
King answered that “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait’. It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ is almost always ‘Never’. (King, 1963) The ministers also questioned the lawfulness of the protests. In response, King replied, “An individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in realty expressing the highest respect of the law.
Dr. Keith Huxen
HIST 202
October 5, 2009
Letter From Birmingham Jail Analysis “Letter from Birmingham Jail: April 16, 1963” was written by Dr. Martin Luther King in response to published statements denouncing his non-violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The article, composed on scraps of paper, in the margins of the newspaper and finally on writing pads (King, 1963) by Dr. King as he was incarcerated in Birmingham City Jail for participating in a series of non-violent protests, known as the Birmingham Campaign. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered“the most important written document of the modern civil rights movement and a classic text on civil disobedience”, primarily due to King’s impassioned defense of his confrontational tactics. (Bass, 2001 ) Initiated because of the response to the reluctance of the city to end segregation, the Birmingham Campaign, established Birmingham as the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. Considered a strategic movement to expose the inequality that Birmingham’s African-American citizens existed under began during the spring of 1963. Clashes between African-American teenagers and white Birmingham law enforcement officials became a mainstay in the national …show more content…
King answered that “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait’. It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ is almost always ‘Never’. (King, 1963) The ministers also questioned the lawfulness of the protests. In response, King replied, “An individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in realty expressing the highest respect of the law.