Letter from Birmingham Jail

4 basic steps of a nonviolent campaign

(1) Collecting the facts, (2) Negotiation, (3) Self-purification, and (4) Direct action.

Civil Rights Movement

A social movement during the 1950s and 1960s, in which people organized to demand equal rights for African Americans and other minorities.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Citizens of a nation are interconnected, and it is wrong to accept justice in some locations, but injustice in others. If injustice exists anywhere, it is a negative force and is harmful even to places where justice currently exists. The forces that harm a specific area, harm the whole.

Hope for the Future

Civil rights movement will ultimately be successful because "the goal of America is freedom." Black people have been part of the United States since before the country's founding. King sees a future where people will recognize the sacrifices made by civil rights activists in the past so they and their children could "reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation."

(1) Collection of facts

It is determined whether injustices exist.

Justice

King argues that denying justice to one person threatens justice for everyone. For African Americans, justice will not simply arrive; it must be fought for.

Failings of the White Moderate

King discusses his disappointment in "white moderates" who claim to oppose racism but also reject any direct action. He criticizes the white leadership of churches for upholding the status quo rather than advocating for equality.

Christianity

King draws on Christian values and beliefs to argue that every human being deserves justice and freedom from tyranny. Churches should encourage civil disobedience to unjust laws rather than insist on adherence to them for the sake of obedience.

Racism

King points out Birmingham's record of police brutality towards African Americans, their unjust treatment in the courts, and the "unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches" as examples of the racism in the city.

Civil disobedience

King says that people are morally obligated to disobey those that are unjust.

Martin Luther King Jr.

King was one of the most prominent leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement. King supported the practice of non-violent civil disobedience, or passively resisting laws that are unjust.

(3) Self-purification

People attend workshops and are prepared to face the consequences of protesting.

Nature of Segregation

Segregation is used to debase one population (blacks) while uplifting another (whites), which makes it immoral in the eyes of God. Immoral laws are laws that are neither just nor fair, so they don't have to be followed. King believes people are under a moral obligation to oppose segregation by refusing to abide by the so-called laws that govern the practice.

Birmingham Campaign

The Birmingham campaign was a series of nonviolent protests organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.

Message to the People

The Letter from Birmingham Jail defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to take direct action rather than waiting for potentially forever justice to come through the courts.

The Time for Change Is Now

The common refrain is "wait," but in King's experience, "'wait' has almost always meant 'never.'" No additional waiting will change the minds and laws of a nation that subjects a large group of its citizens to ill treatment. It is up to the oppressed to take charge and demand equality.

(4) Direct action

The community marches in public to highlight injustice.

Overview

The goal of "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" was for Martin Luther King Jr. to respond to a group of white clergy who had criticized his use of nonviolent civil disobedience in Birmingham, Alabama.

(2) Negotiation

There is "dialogue" between the two sides