![]() Just two weeks later, more than 1,000 schoolchildren took part in the famed “Children’s Crusade,” skipping school to march through the city streets advocating for integration and racial equality. Despite the harsh treatment he and his fellow protestors had received, King continued his work in Birmingham. King was finally released from jail on April 20, four days after penning the letter. Curiously, King never sent a copy to any of the eight Birmingham clergy to whom he had “responded,” leaving many to believe that he had intended it to have a much broader, national, audience all along. Board of Education.įor those, including the Birmingham religious leaders, who urged caution and remained convinced that time would solve the country’s racial issues, King reminded them of Warren’s own words on the need for desegregation, “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” And for those who thought the Atlanta-based King had no right to interfere with issues in Alabama, King argued, in one of his most famous phrases, that he could not sit “idly by in Atlanta” because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Without writing papers, King initially began by jotting down notes in the margin of the newspaper itself, before writing out portions of the work on scraps of paper he gave his attorneys-allowing a King ally, Wyatt Walker, to begin compiling the letter, which eventually ran to 21 double-spaced, typed pages. Augustine and Socrates to Thomas Jefferson and then-Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren, who had overseen the Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights ruling in Brown v. ![]() King drew inspiration for his words from a long line of religious and political philosophers, quoting everyone from St. Over the course of the letter’s 7,000 words, he turned the criticism back upon both the nation’s religious leaders and more moderate-minded white Americans, castigating them for sitting passively on the sidelines while King and others risked everything agitating for change. READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About Martin Luther King Jr. Without notes or research materials, King drafted an impassioned defense of his use of nonviolent, but direct, actions. ![]() Isolated in his cell, King began working on a response. Shortly after King’s arrest, a friend smuggled in a copy of an April 12 Birmingham newspaper which included an open letter, written by eight local Christian and Jewish religious leaders, which criticized both the demonstrations and King himself, whom they considered an outside agitator. As previously agreed upon, King was not immediately bailed out of jail by his supporters, having instead agreed to a longer stay in jail to draw additional attention to the plight of black Americans. Kennedy was urged to intervene on his behalf. Thrown into solitary confinement, King was initially denied access to his lawyers or allowed to contact his wife, until President John F. For months, an organized boycott of the city’s white-owned businesses had failed to achieve any substantive results, leaving King and others convinced they had no other options but more direct actions, ignoring a recently passed ordinance that prohibited public gathering without an official permit.įor King, this arrest-his 13th-would become one of the most important of his career. and nearly 50 other protestors and civil rights leaders were arrested after leading a Good Friday demonstration as part of the Birmingham Campaign, designed to bring national attention to the brutal, racist treatment suffered by blacks in one of the most segregated cities in America-Birmingham, Alabama. ![]() Get off the couch, get out in the streets, and protest injustice with civil disobedience and love.On April 12, 1963, Dr. King was disappointed with clergymen in the South and so-called white moderates who supposedly believed in his cause but didn't like the "tension" and unrest caused by the protests. King used the opportunity to bring everybody up to speed about the protests in Birmingham, what they were about (horrible systemic racism), why the protestors were civilly disobeying (racist) laws and ordinances, why the protestors had truth and justice (and Jesus/America) on their side, and how Dr. He had a philosophy and a plan and everything.ĭr. Turns out he had a lot on his mind, and that he hadn't just shown up to the protest to get out of preaching to his congregation for a few days. After reading an open letter from eight white clergymen in the local newspaper criticizing him and his fellow activists, MLK decided he might as well write back to let them know what was on his mind. King was arrested and sent to jail for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. ![]()
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