Letter from the Birmingham Jail

1. David L. Hudson Jr. Letter from the Birmingham Jail

2. Harvey Shapiro • In July 1962, Harvey Shapiro, an editor of New York Times Magazine, called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s office in Atlanta, and proposed that Dr. King write a “letter from prison” while Dr. King was jailed in Albany, Georgia. • Dr. King didn’t write one then and the Albany Movement was considered a defeat for Dr. King.

3. Timeline • April 3, 1963: Protests began in Birmingham • April 10, 1963: Bull Connor, the city’s public safety commissoner, obtains an injunction prohibiting future protests. • King, Abernathy and Shuttlesworth receive copy of injunction prohibiting “boycotts, sit-ins, parades, picketing and kneel-ins at churches.”

4. An Arrest • On Good Friday – April 12, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth were arrested for violating a court injunction prohibiting marches.

5. “A Call to Unity” • Eight white ministers publish “A Call to Unity” in The Birmingham News. This piece called the protests “unwise and untimely.” • “However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”

6. Call for Unity (cont.) • “We commend the community as a whole, and the local news media and law enforcement officials in particular, on the calm manner in which these demonstrations have been handled.” • “We appeal to both our white and Negro citizens to observe the principles of law and order and common sense.”

7. Who were the eight? • C.C.J. Carpenter – Catholic bishop • Joseph A. Durnick – Catholic bishop • Milton L. Grafman – Rabbi • Paul Hardin – Bishop in Methodist church • Nolan B. Harmon – Bishop in Methodist church • George M. Murray – Bishop in Episcopal Church • Edward V. Ramage – Presbyterian Moderator • Earl Stallings – Pastor of Baptist Church

8. King’s response • He reads the newspaper in jail and begins writing on the newspaper margins and on toilet paper. Andrew Young said the toilet paper was rough enough to write on.

9. “My Dear Fellow Clergyman” • Calls them “men of genuine good will” • Says they are sincere

10. Why in Birmingham? • Responding to “outsiders” comment • Christian mission --- Apostle Paul left Tarsus to preach • “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” • “Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea.”

11. Steps of “Nonviolent campaign” • (1) collection of facts to determine level of injustice; • (2) negotiation • (3) self-purification • (4) direct action

12. (1) Collection of facts • “Birmingham is the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” • Record of police brutality • Bombings

13. (2) Negotiation • Talked with economic leaders in September 1962 – promises made by merchants • Segregation signs still everywhere • Promises broken - “victims of a broken promise”

14. (3) self-purification • “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” • “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” • Plan protests in Easter season

15. (4) Nonviolent direct action • “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” • “It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

16. Responds to “untimely” comment • Waited for far too long • “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

17. “Untimely” (cont.) • “We have waited more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.” • “There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over …”

18. Disobeying laws There are (1) just laws and (2) unjust laws St. Augustine: “An unjust law is no law at all.” Unjust laws are immoral. Laws not just when Negroes preventing from voting and contributing to democracy.

19. Just and unjust laws • Unjust law --- a law that a majority lays on a minority but not on itself • Just law – a law that the majority adopts and agrees to follow and apply to itself

20. unjust laws (cont.) • “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the consequences.”

21. First Amendment reference • “There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.” • Facial vs. As-Applied (major concept in constitutional law)

22. First Amendment reference • “when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.” • References Hitler: “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ …”

23. Responds to Charge of Creating Violence • “it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.”

24. Criticizes those who don’t participate • “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.”

25. “Extreme” • “Was not Jesus not an extremist in love” • “Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?” • “Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist?”

26. Disappointment with white church • “so greatly disappointed with the white church” • Does compliment Rev. Stallings for welcoming Negroes to worship • “more cautious than courageous”

27. Church must regain power • “If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring … and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club”

28. Self-empowering • “We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

29. Commending the police? • King takes the white ministers to task for praising the police. • “angry violent dogs” used on people • Poor treatment of Negroes in jail • Push and curse women and children

30. “real heroes” • “One day the South will recognize its real heroes.” • Closes, calling the white ministers “fellow clergymen and a Christian brother”

31. what happened to the eight clergy? • Father Joseph Durnick underwent a “profound awakening” according to author Jonathan Reidel in his book Gospel of Freedom. In 1968, he joined a march in support of Memphis sanitation workers.

32. Statement on Anti-Violence • Many of the eight clergy signed another letter on September 7, 1963 condemning violence in the city. • “We condemn anew the dastardly act of bombing which has not only imperiled human life but has also enkindled anew a potentially explosive situation.”

33. Pastor Ramage • Ramage welcomed two African-Americans to church service on Easter service. • Afterward, he received death threats and had his tires slashed. Segregationist members urged the church to get rid of the “communist” pastor. • He left for a church in Houston, Texas.

34. Rev. Stallings • Segregationists never forgave Stallings for allowing blacks to worship at First Baptist. One punched him in the mouth after a service. • He left for a church in Marietta, Georgia, and then went to Arizona.

35. Most forced to leave • Within 18 months of demonstrations, only three of the eight ministers remained; by 1971, only one remained in the city • Author Jonathan Bass: “No matter how much or how little they said on the racial issue, each clergyman paid a price for speaking out during the volatile civil rights era.”

36. Significance of the Letter • Jonathan Reidel: “It would be analyzed, appreciated and applied within the nation and across the globe; in social movements …” • Clayborne Carson: “The letter has become part of national consciousness.”

37. Significance of the letter (cont.) • Diane McWhorter, author of Pulitzer Prize winning book Carry Me Home, wrote of The Letter: “the statement of purpose for the modern civil rights movement and probably the most eloquent treatment of the nexus between law and injustice since Henry David Thoreau’s essay ‘Civil Disobedience.’”

38. worldwide significance • Many have used its principles: LGBT advocates, anti-abortion activists and by freedom fighters in Africa, Argentina and Eastern Europe.

39. Questions for students • (1) when are nonviolent acts of civil disobedience justified? • (2) How does Dr. King distinguish between “just” and “unjust” laws? • (3) How does Dr. King justify “extremist” behavior? • (4) Why is Dr. King so deeply disappointed with the white churches?