Preview

Letters from Birmingham

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2006 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Letters from Birmingham
My Dear Fellow Clergymen,
While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas … But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some 85 affiliate organizations all across the South … Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2) negotiation; 3) self-purification; and 4) direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham … Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of the country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of these conditions Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Martin Luther King's "A letter from Birmingham jail" was written in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama who seriously criticized King for organization and participation in the protest march against segregation in Birmingham. King's letter was an attempt to defend himself from these accusations and to criticize white heads and moderators of the church. In the begging parts of the letter, Martin Luther King tries to reject the accusation of being an outsider in Birmingham. He also goes against the accusations that the protests where “untimely” by stating several reasons why this was appropriate time for…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Letter From Birmingham Jail” Analysis Before, after and during the Civil Rights Movement, injustice accommodates thin moral fibers that are unequal to the righteousness and justice that Dr. King sought, however complacency poses as an obstacle in the path of justice in the form of equality prevailing. Injustice is a morally wrong and must be abolished by a nonviolent means so justice can prevail. Segregation is an act that is founded on injustice. In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes several techniques to convey his message regarding segregation. Adages used in the letter are used to ordain significant points.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, King feels the Southern Church is unable to understand and grasp the complexity of this situation. He goes on to mention the four peaceful demonstration steps they have gone through, “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action”(King 6). By stating this, King explains that if they just blatantly said there is racial injustice in the community, rather than peacefully protesting, there would be no gain in their goal of equality. King uses several emotional statements that are very logical regarding to the treatment of Negroes in Birmingham. He states, “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.…

    • 6921 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When one thinks about the civil rights movement, the first name that comes to mind is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He contributed greatly to the advancement of African American people in the U.S.; however, in the case of the Birmingham Campaign, it was a collective group effort from numerous local leaders and MLK that peacefully protested for, and eventually gained, the rights that all American citizens deserve. Few mention the efforts of local leaders like Fred Shuttlesworth’s work with Project “C”, James Bevel’s orchestrating of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, Wyatt Tee Walker’s organizing confrontations with city officials. MLK’s own brother A.D. King, who played a part in the eventual success of the movement, is often left out of these…

    • 2816 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he shows that nonviolence is the way to get the positive attention that his plight deserved. He believed that to use violence was negative on a couple of points. First, violence always gets negative attention. Second, violence was the way the Klu Klux Klan went about their business. He wanted to expose unjust laws and do it in a fashion that conveyed his beliefs without causing other problems. In Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he is trying to convince his “fellow clergymen” (566) that his fight for the civil liberties is a just one, and that the march was a nonviolent one and one that was surely needed. Dr. King stated, “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” (566). King is saying that it’s something that can no longer be ignored, that he can no longer sit on the sideline and be an idle observer. The black man has to take it to the streets. In this letter, Dr. King showed that nonviolence, direct action, and the ability to stand by one’s convictions are the right path.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    letter to birmingham

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Once King was released from jail, the protests assumed a larger scale and a more confrontational character. At the suggestion of SCLC member Jim Bevel, the organizers began to recruit younger protestors. They visited high schools, training youth in nonviolent tactics. The method was dangerous–kids could get hurt–but also potentially very symbolically powerful: children were the beneficiaries of the movement; they represented the movement's hope for the future. As had happened in Montgomery, violence followed the concessions. Whites bombed black homes and churches, and blacks retaliated with mob violence. King's activities in Birmingham, therefore, included a final stage, during which he patrolled the city, speaking wherever people had gathered; he implored African Americans to answer violence only with peace.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Speech at the March on by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community during the 1960s and about equality and the power of education. In order to achieve true freedom one must make changes through peaceful protest.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eugene “Bull” Connor, Police Commissioner of Safety of Birmingham, Alabama, clearly failed in his own hate-driven campaign against desegregation. Coupled with this failure to extinguish a handful of peaceful protest marches, Bull Connor also failed to appropriate the South’s senselessly racist worldviews with that of the sensible reactionary precautions that would be more relatable to the mainstream media. Bull’s disregard for context and lacking desire to find a progressive solution to the problem exposed the weak-mindedness of those moderates in Birmingham calling for sympathy from the country. Subsequently, Eugene Connor became the catalyst for situational understanding in the region. The media’s freedom during these events allowed a narrative that reflected true human morality and the juxtaposition of tenured human beings with peaceful resistance training involved in positive civil rights reform and the dog-wielding, fire hose-wielding, power-wielding police force gave way for ethical reflection. Quite obviously, in hindsight, Eugene “Bull” Connor’s crusade on Birmingham’s weakest population seemed, to the national public, an atrocity conveying the true instability of desegregation. To characterize his response as anything but listlessly immoral would give credence to an unthinking way of living in which one’s own values have no basis in reality and therefore no respectable place in modern society. One could say Eugene “Bull” Connor was simply following the laws promoting segregation in his state and that that was just but, to the contrary, he was not. Eugene Connor and his police force weren’t even just in the eyes of the law. Eugene and the segregation laws he upheld were not protected by the Supreme Court. In the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case segregation in public schools was deemed unequal and unconstitutional. Eugene’s regime for keeping Alabama segregated went against the Supremacy Clause. This allowed his…

    • 561 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Within an increasingly tensed and angry atmosphere on June 16, 1966, Stokely Carmichael made his famous call for Black Power during the Meredith March against Fear in Greenwood, Mississippi. Frustrated by the slow pace of the implementation of the moderate racial reforms, the young activist, together with other SNCC members, requested a change in strategies. After years of violent attacks and the federal government’s continued unwillingness to protect the lives of civil rights organizers and African Americans in general, Carmichael envisioned a new form of Black empowerment; one that would be independent from the fleeting mood and empty promises of Whites. No longer should African Americans place their trust in the national Democratic…

    • 1848 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he describes the countless acts of terror and discrimination that are imposed on him and his fellow black members of society at the hands of the privileged whites. He writes, “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters…” (Charters 28-9). Due to all of the atrocities they must face on a daily basis, it is not easy to patient. Anne Moody also tells her story with the same level of urgency. After hearing Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C., she writes that “we had dreamers instead of leaders…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A cold, snowy winter night in Birmingham, Alabama: one of those nights where you would rather stay inside and sit by a fire while sipping on a cup of hot chocolate. Not everyone is doing that though, for many people walk in the cold all bundled up. Some of the more unfortunate ones stay stranded outside in the freezing weather with not nearly enough layers to keep them warm. In Birmingham, a lot of these people consist of African Americans who cannot afford somewhere to keep warm or are just simply denied a place to stay based on their skin color. In this day and age, segregation exists between whites and blacks. A huge issue nationwide, but when it comes to Birmingham everything is taken to a new level. To ensure the separation of whites and blacks, you can see plenty of racial signs and other such tactics used by the city. Although between King and Thoreau, none of these resemble an issue; they both could stay warm under their nice winter jackets, both had a place to go back home to and more importantly, one was a white man and the other a black man.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Birmingham in the 1960's

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In 1963, Birmingham became a focus for the Civil Rights Movement. Birmingham, as a city, had made its mark on the Civil Rights Movement for a number of years. Whether it was through the activities of Eugene "Bull: Connor or the church bombing which killed four school girls, many Americans should have known about Birmingham by 1963. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was relatively inactive in Birmingham until February of 1963 because the Birmingham City Council banned the organization from meeting in 1953; so any civil rights campaign could only be lead by Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (King 36). Thus, Birmingham had a fast growing reputation as one of the South 's most fiercely nonintegrated cities (Birmingham Civil Rights Institute).…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The poem of “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall discusses African American girl who wants to join the march for the civil rights movement, but her mother insists it is too dangerous. As a alternative, the mother persauades her daughter to go to church for safety purpose; however, the white terrorists bomb the church. When the mother is desperately searching for her daughter, she finds only her daughter's shoes to be remained at the shattered church.The form, the meaning, and the settling of the poem assists the reader to comprehend deeper meaning of the poem. enhance the reader's ability…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays