The 1960s was a rough time period. Violence, racial injustice, and hate filled the streets. Few remained unscathed. It was a time of uncertainty, and the community needed a strong leader. This person was Martin Luther King, Jr. He was willing to go to extreme length - even jail - to achieve the prize of equality. While sitting in solitary confinement, Dr. King brought the African American community one step closer to justice.
A March for Jail: Birmingham was one of the most segregated places in the country at the time, but King had plans to change that. Dr. King’s plan was called Project C. Essentially, the plan was to get enough protesters jailed so that the city could no longer enforce the unjust laws. Unfortunately, they estimated that 1,000 people needed to get jailed, and after some time the plan seemed out of reach. Because of the lack of success of Project C, Martin Luther King, Jr. decided to rally the anti-segregationist community by going a march on Good Friday. Fred Shuttlesworth and Reverend Ralph Abernathy were also major leaders in the public demonstration. They were prepared to be incarcerated for this great cause.
The King is Jailed: Before the demonstration on April 12, 1963, the state legislature passed an injunction banning public gatherings without an official permit. Dr. King & Co. ignored this ruling and went on the march anyways. Not surprisingly, King and 45 others were sent to the Birmingham Jail. It was Martin Luther King’s 13th arrest! He remained in solitary confinement for eight days. He was not currently aware that he was being criticized from the outside, or that he would soon change the nation with his writing yet again.
“A Call For Unity”: On the same day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed, eight white Alabama Clergymen sent an open letter calling for the protests to stop and denouncing ‘outsiders’ - meaning Dr. King, who was from Georgia - for causing trouble. They criticized Dr. King’s decision to lead the public demonstration and called it “unwise and untimely”. The clergymen argued that African Americans should fight for their rights in the court and not by protesting. The clergymen also claimed that negotiation was a better path than direct action. “A Call For Unity” is the document that sparked the pivotal Birmingham Letter of the Civil Rights Movement.
The King’s Comeback: Martin Luther King Jr. was appalled by the contents of the clergymen’s “A Call For Unity”. As soon as he read the letter, he started to write a response on bits and pieces of newspaper. His letter was full of his well-known powerful writing, and had many quotes from people like Socrates, Thomas Jefferson, and St. Augustine. MLK’s letter had many more purposes than just counter-attacking “A Call For Unity”. He explained why he was in Birmingham, he defended what the protesters did in Birmingham, and he showed his disappointment in the white moderates. Dr. King also attempted to convince people segregation is wrong and talked about what laws were unjust. Interestingly, exactly 40 years before MLK was jailed, a prisoner there had wrote a ballad about the jail, in which it included the line “...write me a letter; send it by mail; send it in care of Birmingham jail."
The Letter, Later: Dr. King’s writing was smuggled out of jail by his lawyers, who took it to Reverend Wyatt Walker to be put together. The reverend was basically putting together a jigsaw puzzle...that was 21 pages long and 7,000 words. Although letter was not released to the public until the summer of 1964, members of the community could learn about it in through alternative sources, such as a reading on a New York radio station. In the following months, the letter spread like a wildfire. Now, this highly influential letter has been translated into more than 40 languages. It also has been published in over 50 anthologies. This letter had a huge impact on the Civil Rights Movement. The SCLC, which Dr. King was the president of, used the letter to raise money for campaigning against racial injustice. Later, Martin Luther King, Jr. used the letter to write a book titled Why We Can’t Wait. Interestingly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was made into a law in the same month that the book was published.
The letter from Birmingham Jail had a lasting impact on the nation. Many people consider the letter to be even more relevant this year because of the conflicts between the police and the African American community. The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia held its third annual reading from January 17-19, 2015. Sean Kelley is Eastern State’s senior VP and director of public programming. "Dr. King's extraordinary letter has never been more relevant than in 2015," Kelley said. "Dr. King taught us that civil disobedience was essential to the civil rights movement. When this highly educated and prominent man chose to spend time in jails, it forced many Americans to confront not just the racism of individual behavior, but the immorality and oppression in the nation's legal system as well. We look forward to an open and frank discussion about Dr. King's actions in light of the ongoing controversy in Ferguson and Staten Island and around our nation." The Letter from Birmingham Jail is forever embedded in the history of our great nation.