Letter From Birmingham Jail

In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama after he and other Black demonstrators violated a court order to halt their protest marches and sit-ins. While King was in jail, eight White clergy published an open letter criticizing King and Black protestors, calling their activities “unwise and untimely.” King disagreed and penned his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” arguing that Black Americans had waited long enough for equal rights, and that unjust laws were invalid laws. The Letter From Birmingham Jail demands that all Americans, not just Whites, be guaranteed the freedom of the Declaration of Independence and the rights of the United States Constitution. The Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail firmly grounded its appeals for liberty and equality in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, fighting for America to fulfill its own promise that “all men are created equal.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”