Letter from Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the
influences on his thought

Bertolino--Mosaic 2-Power Unit 1

 Dr. King wrote the Letter From Birmingham Jail while he
was in solitary confinement after being arrested for
protesting segregation laws in Birmingham, Alabama.
 Dr. King was responding to a public letter from 8 local
Birmingham clergymen who felt that Dr. King was
hasty and radical in his approach.
 Dr. King was arrested on Good Friday, April 12 and
released on April 20th.
 He was denied a phone call to his wife who was
recovering from childbirth—their 4th child. The
Kennedy administration learned of this—the phone
call was permitted and eventually bail was raised for
Dr. King‟s release.


 In April 1963 King and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined with
Birmingham, Alabama‟s existing local movement, the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, in a
massive direct action campaign to attack the city‟s
segregation system by putting pressure on
Birmingham‟s merchants during the Easter season, the
second biggest shopping season of the year.
 As ACMHR founder Fred Shuttlesworth stated in the
group‟s „„Birmingham Manifesto,‟‟ the campaign was
„„a moral witness to give our community a chance to
survive.‟‟ (ACMHR, 3 April 1963).
 Since Dr. King was also a minister, he was expected to
preach in Atlanta as it was Easter weekend. But he
chose to do the protest as the timing felt right to him.

 Jim Crow Laws in the South were legal means to oppress Blacks.
Segregation was law. Blacks used different bathrooms, sat on
different park benches, drank from different fountains, washed
their clothes in different Laundromats, gave up seats for white
people on the bus, and always sat behind whites in public
transportation.
 From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states
enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a
black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to
California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and
cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for
consorting with members of another race.
 The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and
ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their
black and white clientele separated.
 Whites who did not obey these laws were also prosecuted by state
officials.


 Pool and Billiard Rooms : It shall be unlawful for a Negro
and white person to play together or in company with each
other at any game of pool or billiards.
 Toilet Facilities, Male: Every employer of white or Negro
males shall provide for such white or Negro males
reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities.
 Nurses: No person or corporation shall require any white
female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either
public or private, in which negro men are placed.
 Buses: All passenger stations in this state operated by any
motor transportation company shall have separate waiting
rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white
and colored races.
 Laws such as these were standard, not only in the South, but in
states like Delaware, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico and
Maryland.

 Much of what we understand as non-violent protest emerged
from Henry David Thoreau‟s essay “Resistance to Civil
Government” posthumously titled “On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience”.
 Civil Disobedience is a form of resistance in which protesters
deliberately violate a law. Classically, they violate the law they are
protesting, such as segregation or draft laws, but sometimes they
violate other laws which they find unobjectionable, such as
trespassing or traffic laws, simply to draw attention to the larger
issues of their objections.
 The purpose of civil disobedience can be to publicize an unjust law or a
just cause, to appeal to the conscience of the public, to force negotiations
with recalcitrant officials, to clog the machines (Thoreau’s phrase) with
political prisoners, to get into court where one can challenge the
constitutionality of a law, to exculpate oneself or to put an end to one’s
personal complicity in the injustice which flows from an obedience to an
unjust law.


Henry David Thoreau deliberately did not pay a poll tax because he considered it to be unjust
and exploitative. So he was thrown in prison for this offense. Much of his anger against these
governmental interferences became the basis of his essay. He saw the constitution as the
problem, not the solution. Legal channels took too long—a man was born to live, not to lobby.
 His individualism gave him another answer; individuals were sovereign, especially in a
democracy. The government only holds its power by delegation from free individuals. Any
individual may elect to stand apart from the domains of the law.
 Thoreau also protested the Mexican War. Many Vietnam protestors in the 60s found his ideas
to be relevant to their own political concerns. Many protestors against the Vietnam and Iraqi
Wars refused to pay taxes—they reasoned that their money was funding unjust wars.
One of Thoreau‟s most quoted lines comes from this essay: “When I meet a government which
says to me, “Your money or your life”, why should I be in haste to give it my money?”
 Gandhi himself used this logic in his forms of protesting against the English occupying force
by refusing to purchase British goods. Gandhi understood, as did Dr. King, that non-violent
protest works when the economic base of the oppressor comes under threat.
 The original idea of the current Tea Party was to protest “taxation without representation” as
they were enraged by the bailout of Wall Street. However, the Tea Party has now been
appropriated by the Republican extremists, even though the majority of that political party
ironically supported the bailout and refused to recognize the wishes of their constituents.


 When he lived in South Africa, Gandhi and other Indians organized a
series of passive resistant tactics to protest laws. They refused to get
IDS, they burned the ones they had, they refused to work in the diamond
mines—these acts unconvinced the government because working in the
mines was considered to be lowly work that whites didn‟t perform and
blacks (who were seen as even lower) could not fill the ranks and still
complete the other socially undesirable jobs of the South African
economy. These campaigns lasted 7 years.
 Gandhi and a score of others were beaten and jailed repeatedly for their
protests. It was here that Gandhi began his theory of Satyagraha—
literally meaning soul force, love force. It became the basis of his non-
violent movement.

 The word Sat means truth in Hindi: Agraha means firmness. He named
the movement Satyagraha, realizing that he needed a term to define his
ideal of what he had first called in English, passive resistance. Later he
discarded that term because nonviolence is anything but passive; “it calls
for intense activity.”(125) He found the English term to be narrowly
construed as though it “were the weapon of the weak.”(125) Satyagraha is
also called the devotion to truth. (Quotes taken from The Gandhi Reader.)


 In 1920, Gandhi began a series of demonstrations and protests against the British.in
India. He came up with two more terms: Hind swarj (home rule—see pgs. 11 to 13)
and ahimsa: refusal to hurt any living being (see “The Creed of Non-
Violence”, pgs. 95 to 122).
 Ahimsa included vegetarianism, refusal to harm our enemies and maintaining our
humanity in all kinds of situations. Consider this definition from the ATP
Nonviolence Trainer’s Manual:
Ahimsa --- refusal to inflict injury on others.
 A) Ahimsa is dictated by our commitment to communication and to sharing of our
pieces of the truth. Violence shuts off channels of communication.
 B) The concept of ahimsa appears in most major religions, which suggests that
while it may not be practiced by most people, it is respected as an ideal. (Jesus: turn
the other cheek.)
 C) Ahimsa is an expression of our concern that our own and other's humanity be
manifested and respected.
 D) We must learn to genuinely love our opponents in order to practice ahimsa.
 From 1922 to 1924, Gandhi was held in prison for sedition. (Gandhi spent over
2300 days in jail throughout his lifetime—approximently 5 years.)

 Like Gandhi, King believed that one had to find love for all
people, even his enemies. He had to purge his mind of hate. He
relied on his Christian faith ,and his belief in the truth of his
mission to fulfill his purification.
 He made no secret that Gandhi‟s teachings and actions for
libertation were his model for the fundamentals of demanding
equal rights for Blacks in the United States.


 King and Non-Violence: He says that he is in
Birmingham, Alabama because injustice is
here. He outlines his campaign in four basic
steps:
1. collection of information to see if injustice exists
2. negotiation with the oppressor
3. self-purification
4. direct action
This is the model he uses to discuss his ideas in
the letter.


Direct action: Sit-ins, marches—these lead to negotiations
because they attract attention, even if it results in
imprisonment. These actions formed the basis of civil
disobedience for Dr. King.
 If the actions are peaceful and non-violent, they will
eventually cause the oppressor to negotiate. Here he echoes
Gandhi in his approach to non-violence. King also writes
that he knows “through painful experience that freedom is
never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be
demanded by the oppressed.” (320) He chooses a non-
violence method to demand.
 Yet he is on the same wavelength as Malcolm X who
writes: “How can you thank a man for giving you what is
yours? How can you thank a man for giving only part of
what is yours?”


 Just vs. Unjust Law: The 8 clergymen who wrote him were
concerned about his choice to break laws. King worked with the
ideas of just and unjust law from the middle ages. He quotes St.
Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
 A just law is man-made; it concurs with moral law and the law of
God. A just law uplifts the human personality; it edifies him. For
his theory of unjust law King also looks to St. Thomas Aquinas
who wrote extensively on natural and just law during the middle
ages.
 Specifically, King writes that “an unjust law is a human law that
is not rooted in eternal and natural law.”(321) It degrades the
human personality. Jim Crow laws give the segregator “a false
sense of superiority”. (321)
 By quoting Martin Buber, King states that segregation “
substitutes an “I-it”relationship for an “I-thou” relationship and
ends up relegating persons to the status of things.” (321) So to
King, an unjust law is no law at all.


 Yet King still insists that civil disobedience must
be done with love and humanity. Here again, he
shows the influence of Gandhi when he writes:
 “One who breaks an unjust law must do so
openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept
the penalty….I submit that an individual who
breaks a law that…is unjust is…expressing the
highest regard for law. (323)
 Consider Gandhi‟s views on Ahisma: turning the
other cheek, maintaining one‟s humanity and
genuinely loving their neighbor. King insisted that
his followers did the same.


 King expressed disappointment in the white moderates
who did not support him in his struggle. He accuses
them of preferring “ order than to justice”(322)
 When they say “I agree with you in the goal you
seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct
action”.(322) He claims that they prefer a negative
peace, a community that is orderly externally, but
repressed and controlled by injustice, seething at their
inequality.
 King defines a positive peace as a demonstration of
the “presence of justice in the community”—in other
words, people who conduct an orderly community out
of respect for themselves and each other. They feel
uplifted by the laws in their society.


 If one wants to understand how Dr. King worked for civil rights,
the Letter From Birmingham Jail is crucial.
 It must be noted that there were other schools of thought: Malcolm X was the spokesman for the
Nation of Islam—he was often accused of advocating violence. He never committed any violent act
when he was with the Nation of Islam or afterwards, but he also noted that if someone got violent
with him, he was going to react the same. His views changed after he made the pilgrimage to Mecca
and experienced what many call “true Islam.” We cannot know how deeply the change would have
manifested as Malcolm X was assassinated within a year of returning from Mecca.
 Stokley Carmichael invented the term Black Power. He wanted Blacks to feel empowered by who
they were, by their African heritage and by the culture they represent in America. Dr. King had no
problem with his ideas, but found the term “Black Power” as suggestive for violence, so he broke off
from working with Stokley Carmichael without harsh feelings.
 Dr. King‟s death broke Stokley‟s heart, among with thousands of activists. Stokley called the
subsequent riots as an answer to white society—people were angry at the death of their leader.
Robert Kennedy openly admired him. J. Edgar Hoover hated him, and made no secret of his
animosity. Dr. King received death threats as a matter of course, and he expected that he would not
live a long life. After his death, Coretta Scott King noted that Dr. King saw our society as “sick”; he felt
called to heal the disease of racism and man‟s inhumanity against each other.

(All quotes from Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail have been taken from Temple University‟s
Intellectual Heritage 52, fourth edition. I used this text when I taught IH. The pagination for the PDF
is obviously different.)


Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Letter from Birmingham Jail