Resistance 1963 was a crucial time for the civil rights movement in the United States. That year, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which he founded, led many public demonstrations against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The demonstrations were, at least on the part of the demonstrators, nonviolent and carefully planned to ensure they were handled according to the principles of nonviolent resistance. As a result of leading and participating in these protests, King was held in a Birmingham jail. While in jail, a group of eight white clergymen publicly published an open letter criticizing the demonstrations and actively urging black people in the community not to support them. King responded to this letter with his own, now known as “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” makes three major points, and structuring his argument as he does seamlessly serves dual purposes: to reply directly to and refute the clergy’s statements and to lay out for all readers the argument for when, how, and why the movement must be as it is. The first major point King makes is in response to the clergymen’s claim that the protests are not timely, and it makes clear why the right time for the movement is now. Firstly, King explains how carefully they considered timing when planning their actions. He notes that they postponed action several times when to go ahead would have been counterproductive. He then explains why, aside from the few events that made postponement a good idea, waiting is not an option. He notes how long the movement has been due, writing “we have waited more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights” (King 429). When one considers the degree of progress that took place over all those years, and how short of equality it remains, it is clear that change not demanded can move very slowly. In fact, King criticizes the idea that time on its own can make any change at all, which he calls “a tragic misconception of time” coming from “the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills” (433). Things change over time only if people act to create change. That they must act now to utilize time in order to create change is justified by the unacceptable abuse of black people, both social and physical, that continues every single day. Thus, every day they wait is another day that black people are oppressed, hurt, and killed, so waiting is not an option. Another criticism the clergymen made was that King and the demonstrators were breaking laws, and King responds to this, thereby explaining to all who may share this concern why they do in fact break laws. As King explains, it all comes down to justice. Some laws are just, and some laws are unjust, and unjust laws not only can be broken but must be broken so that they can be changed. He connects the justice of laws to religious morality, exp ...

1. Resistance
1963 was a crucial time for the civil rights movement in the
United States. That year, Martin Luther King Jr. and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which he
founded, led many public demonstrations against racial
segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The demonstrations were,
at least on the part of the demonstrators, nonviolent and
carefully planned to ensure they were handled according to the
principles of nonviolent resistance. As a result of leading and
participating in these protests, King was held in a Birmingham
jail. While in jail, a group of eight white clergymen publicly
published an open letter criticizing the demonstrations and
actively urging black people in the community not to support
them. King responded to this letter with his own, now known as
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” King’s “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail” makes three major points, and structuring his
argument as he does seamlessly serves dual purposes: to reply
directly to and refute the clergy’s statements and to lay out for
all readers the argument for when, how, and why the movement
must be as it is.
The first major point King makes is in response to the
clergymen’s claim that the protests are not timely, and it makes
clear why the right time for the movement is now. Firstly, King
explains how carefully they considered timing when planning
their actions. He notes that they postponed action several times
when to go ahead would have been counterproductive. He then
explains why, aside from the few events that made
postponement a good idea, waiting is not an option. He notes
how long the movement has been due, writing “we have waited
more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given
rights” (King 429). When one considers the degree of progress
that took place over all those years, and how short of equality it
remains, it is clear that change not demanded can move very

2. slowly. In fact, King criticizes the idea that time on its own can
make any change at all, which he calls “a tragic misconception
of time” coming from “the strangely irrational notion that there
is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure
all ills” (433). Things change over time only if people act to
create change. That they must act now to utilize time in order to
create change is justified by the unacceptable abuse of black
people, both social and physical, that continues every single
day. Thus, every day they wait is another day that black people
are oppressed, hurt, and killed, so waiting is not an option.
Another criticism the clergymen made was that King and the
demonstrators were breaking laws, and King responds to this,
thereby explaining to all who may share this concern why they
do in fact break laws. As King explains, it all comes down to
justice. Some laws are just, and some laws are unjust, and
unjust laws not only can be broken but must be broken so that
they can be changed. He connects the justice of laws to
religious morality, explaining that just laws are those that match
up with the “law of God” while unjust laws are those “out of
harmony with the moral law” (King 430). It is clear here how
King uses the religious beliefs of the clergy to effectively argue
for the righteousness of the protestors’ intentional law-
breaking. As the United States has a high Christian population
in general, this argument would reach most of the common
citizens similarly.
Finally, King addresses the characterization of his and the
movement’s actions as extreme in two different ways. At first,
he refutes the idea that they are acting like extremists by
highlighting what he feels are the true extreme positions. On
one hand, there are those who choose to do absolutely nothing,
either because they actually benefit from segregation and don’t
want to lose their position in society or because oppression has
completely broken their sense of self-respect. On the other
hand, there are those who fight with anger and hatred and “come

3. perilously close to advocating violence,” such as those in black
nationalist groups (King 434). As non-violent protestors, King
argues, they fall between such extremes, and are actually the
moderates. Later, however, he addresses the idea again, this
time arguing that extremism is not necessarily bad. He again
appeals to religious examples, quoting Jesus and Martin Luther
as examples of extremists who were right to be extreme among
those who needed extreme change. He also appeals to American
heroes like Abraham Lincoln, who would be nearly universally
admired by Americans regardless of religion. In this way, he
both refutes the charge of extremism and makes it clear that if
they are extreme, it is rightly because good people at trying
times must be so.
Work Cited
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Reading the World: Ideas That
Matter, edited by Michael Austin, W. W. Norton & Company,
2015, pp. 425-40.