Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Martin Luther King Jr

The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, commonly but incorrectly rendered Letter from a Birmingham Jail, was an open letter written on April 16, 1963 by Martin Luther King, Jr., an American civil rights leader. King wrote the letter from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, after a peaceful protest against segregation. The letter is a response to a statement made by eight white politically moderate Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963 titled "A Call For Unity" which agreed that social injustices were taking place and that nonviolent civil disobedience was a good way for political change and that white moderates wanted "order" more than they wanted "justice". King responded that, without forcefully demanding equal rights, true civil rights change could never be achieved because the privilaged would not willing give up their privilage. As he put it, "This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" He asserted not only that civil disobedience is justified in the face of unjust laws, but also that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" because "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The letter was first published as "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in the June 12, 1963 edition of The Christian Century [Source: reprinted in Reporting Civil Rights, Part One - (page 777- 794) - American Journalism 1941 - 1963. The Library of America] Ήg