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 on April 16, 1963 written 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 of segregation. The letter is a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963 titled "A Call For Unity" which agreed that social injustices were taking place but believed that the battles should be taken solely to the court not to the streets in order to better the city of Birmingham. King responded that without forceful, direct actions such as his, true civil rights could never be achieved. As he put it, "This wait has almost always meant 'never.'" He held that Civil Disobedience is justified in the face of unjust laws. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (586x872, 75 KB) kjk Martin Luther King, 1964. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (586x872, 75 KB) kjk Martin Luther King, 1964. ... An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience. ... April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Martin Luther King redirects here. ... The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. ... Nickname: The Magic City, Pittsburgh of the South, BHam, The Ham Location in Jefferson County in the state of Alabama Coordinates: Country United States State Alabama County Jefferson, Shelby Mayor Bernard Kincaid (D) Area    - City 151. ... Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area  Ranked 30th  - Total 52,423 sq mi (135,775 km²)  - Width 190 miles (306 km)  - Length 330 miles (531 km)  - % water 3. ... The Rex Theatre for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, June 1937 This entry is related to, but not included in the Political ideologies series or one of its sub-series. ... April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... A Call For Unity is a letter written on April 12, 1963 by eight (8) clergymen local to Birmingham, Alabama and published in a local newspaper. ... It has been suggested that Civil and social disobedience be merged into this article or section. ...

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]

The letter is a classic example of rhetoric, employing both formal references to Paul of Tarsus, Reinhold Niebuhr, Socrates, Paul Tillich, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas as well as more sentimental descriptions of his daughter's "tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children." ** Rhetoric (from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is the art or technique of persuasion, usually through the use of language. ... Paul of Tarsus, also known as Paul the Apostle or Saint Paul (AD 3–14 — 62–69),[1] is widely considered to be central to the early development and spread of Christianity, particularly westward from Jerusalem. ... Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was a Protestant theologian best known for his study of the task of relating the Christian faith to the reality of modern politics and diplomacy. ... Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης, invariably anglicized as , Sǒcratēs; 470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who is widely credited for laying the foundation for Western philosophy. ... Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. ... For the first Archbishop of Canterbury, see Saint Augustine of Canterbury Aurelius Augustinus, Augustine of Hippo, or Saint Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) was one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. ... Saint Thomas Aquinas [Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino] (c. ...

External links

• Letter from Birmingham Jail pdf format
• Letter from Birmingham Jail printable version
• "Statement from Clergy"
• Charles, McGrath, "A Liberal Beacon Burns Out", New York Times, January 23, 2006.