In April of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. Alone for several days in the dull “monotony of a narrow jail cell,” as he described it, King penned a letter that has been described as one of the most important historical documents ever written. Considered a classic treatise on civil disobedience, it is perhaps one of the most beautifully crafted and eloquent letters ever composed. Every American should read it.
In the 1950s and 1960s, state governments were failing to uphold the rights of African Americans under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. Even after the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (overturning Plessy v. Ferguson from 1896) which struck down segregation in the nation’s public schools, discrimination persisted, especially in the South. At the time, Birmingham, Alabama was a hotbed for racial tension, and considered by many to be the most segregated large city in America.
King had led a campaign to desegregate a downtown shopping district in Birmingham. Teaching a means of agitation by nonviolent direct action, this was done with boycotts, marches, and lunch counter sit-ins. Hundreds had been arrested. On April 12, 1963 — Good Friday — King was arrested as well.
On the day of his arrest a group of white moderate clergymen wrote an open letter to King, which appeared in the Birmingham News, criticizing the demonstrations. They urged a stop to the nonviolent protests and thought it more important to keep the peace rather than make immediate demands. They advised waiting for the courts to weigh in and public opinion to change. King’s reasoned response, his letter from Birmingham Jail, began with scribbled notes in the margin of the newspaper. In this forceful written statement against injustice, King respectfully dismantles their arguments with crisp and specific language. Bristling with energy, the letter provides a compelling defense of nonviolent demonstration and became a rallying cry for an end to discrimination.
According to King’s secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey (who pieced together and typed his words along with the help of Pastor Wyatt Tee Walker), after beginning the letter on the edges of the newspaper, King continued writing on toilet paper, greasy sandwich bags, paper napkins, and other scraps of paper. The fragmented pieces of paper (carrying almost 7,000 words) were smuggled out of the jail inside his lawyer’s shirt. King’s words are penetrating and worth considering today. He wrote — “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God…” King argued that theirs was a righteous cause and noted that he had been labeled an extremist. He embraces this asking wasn’t Jesus an extremist for love? Wasn’t the Apostle Paul an extremist for the gospel? Wasn’t Socrates an extremist for truth? All were martyred for their extremism.
With King’s inspiring words, he brought the struggle for civil rights into clear and brilliant focus. He wrote – “Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation. And yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”
King’s letter, written in the Birmingham jail, helped focus the world’s attention on the plight of African Americans in the South and spurred the famous March on Washington in August of that year. It was here that King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. His words deeply affected the nation’s views on racial segregation and intolerance. Every American would benefit from pondering King’s immortal words today.
Jody Dyer resides in Kerrville and is the author of Typewriter Weekly. Visit typewriterweekly.com for more.
