martin luther king letter from birmingham jail

So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.” “If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. King's letter also decries the complacency of members of his own faith- and by extension, all compassionate people at large: The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” “I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. His involvement in Birmingham began at the request of an affiliate organization to his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and employed a four-step approach: fact analysis, negotiation, self-purification, and finally- only once deemed necessary- direct action.įrom this point in the letter, King illustrates the importance of employing direct action, not to create social tension, but to expose it where it already exists in the community: Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.'įBB activists may find it interesting how King outlines his community-level strategy. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Most famously, it calls on us to live up to our responsibility as compassionate citizens of a vast community: The letter touches on familiar issues of importance to our own humanist and activist communities. (The letter is a passionate denouncement of complacency, so it might be most appropriate to read or listen to it in its entirety.)Īs with much of King's legacy, public consciousness of the letter often fixates on its most optimistic notes. Today we commemorate its 56th anniversary.įor those unfamiliar, the full text can be found here and audio here. Written to refute white moderate criticism of his methods, today the letter is celebrated as King’s famous treatise on the 'necessary tension' of nonviolent protest.

Written while King was jailed for an unpermitted march against segregation laws, his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” was composed on newspaper scraps and toilet paper, in a moment when the civil rights movement seemed to verge on collapse.

Martin luther king letter from birmingham jail