Letter from the Birmingham Jail
Written in the margins of a newspaper in a jail cell in 1963, and addressed to clergymen who had urged patience.
King wrote this in April 1963 from a cell in Birmingham, on newspaper margins and scraps smuggled in, answering eight white clergymen who had called the protests unwise and untimely. It sets out why direct action is necessary when negotiation has failed, why waiting is not a neutral request, and what a just law is. Among the most influential documents of the civil rights movement.
Recommended by 1 Person
John Kerry
Personally, I think the Letter From the Birmingham Jail from Martin Luther King was as eloquent and as influential a document on the civil rights movement and progressive thinking about rights as anything that I’ve ever read. It’s one of the most powerful pieces I’ve ever read, period. On Martin Luther King day it’s one of my favourite things to remind me, it’s so powerful.
Interview · August 2011
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