Letter From Birmingham Jail

Letter from A Birmingham Jail: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University.

On April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth and many others were arrested and jailed during the massive civil rights protests in Birmingham. While King was imprisoned, eight white clergymen published a letter entitled “A Call for Unity”, accusing King  and others of being “outsiders” who should avoid street demonstrations and rely on legal strategies in the courts to achieve desegregation. King responded writing his famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” Declaring  that he was tired of waiting for change, King insisted that nonviolent direct action was consistent with his Christian faith since “one had a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”