Letter from the Birmingham Jail

The Reason for the Letter

On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King, a vital and determined African American civil rights leader, and a fellow activist, Ralph Abernathy, were arrested and detained in the Jefferson County jail in Birmingham for violating a state court order to stop participating in civil rights protests. City Commissioner T. E. “Bull” Connor ordered that King and Abernathy be placed in isolation, supposedly “for their own safety.” In reality, this was a failed attempt to break their spirits; the challenge of isolation, in fact, strengthened King's determination.

In that same year, in response to the demand for civil rights, eight clergymen—Bishop N. B. Harmon, Jr.; Bishop C.C.J. Carpenter; Bishop G. Murray; Bishop J. A. Durick; and P. Hardin, Jr.; Rabbi M. Grafman; Edward V. Ramage; and E. Stallings— issued two statements in Birmingham newspapers, one in January and one in April on the very day of King's arrest, in which they accused “outsiders” of “unwise and untimely” protests that “incite violence.” These clergymen believed the fight against injustice should be waged exclusively in the courts.

From an isolated, cold cell King wrote an eloquent letter in response to the clergymen's criticism. This letter, though worthy of a pharaoh's papyrus, was written on toilet paper and the edges of newspaper and “smuggled” out of the jailhouse a few sheets at a time to Wyatt Tee Walker, SCLC's executive director, and his secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, who edited and publicized its content. Excerpts of the text were published on May 19 (when King was no longer in jail) in the New York Post Sunday Magazine. In May, the Crisis and many other newspapers published the whole text. The publication improved national support for the Birmingham campaign against segregation.

In the letter, King responded to the SCLC's being called “outsiders” who promoted “unwise and untimely” protests that led to violence, expressed his disappointment in white moderates and the white church, and made clear his own position in the African American scene. King refuted the charge that he was a meddlesome outsider, since he was invited to Birmingham because of the injustices in the city; he saw himself as an apostle carrying the news of freedom to Birmingham. This intervention was not an overly hasty decision, as the four basic steps of all nonviolent campaigns were followed in Birmingham. First, the group determined by the facts that local bombings and racist acts meant that the march was necessary. Second, the [Page 309]black community had tried to negotiate with the white community to support putting a stop to the attacks, but the promises the white community made were not kept. Third, “self-purification,” as a mental and psychological preparation for direct action, had been an ongoing process in the previous months and had finally led to the decision to take direct action. And fourth, the protest was planned and staged.

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