Document 28–2: Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963

Reading the American Past: Printed Page 254

DOCUMENT 28–2

Martin Luther King Jr. Explains Nonviolent Resistance

Participants in the civil rights demonstrations that swept across the South during the 1960s used tactics of nonviolent resistance. Many white Americans, North and South, condemned the demonstrators as extremists and lawbreakers whose ends may have been admirable but whose means were deplorable. Martin Luther King Jr. responded to those views in 1963 in a letter he wrote while in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been arrested for participating in demonstrations. King's letter, excerpted here, was directed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized the Birmingham demonstrations. King's letter set forth the ideals of nonviolence embraced by many civil rights activists.

Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963

This selection has been omitted intentionally in this electronic edition.

From Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” in Why We Can't Wait (New York: Harper & Row, 1984).

Questions for Reading and Discussion

  1. In what ways did segregation generate a “sense of ‘nobodiness'” and “a false sense of superiority”? Why?
  2. King distinguished between just and unjust laws. How could one tell whether segregation was just or unjust? What was the difference between “civil disobedience” and criminal activity? Why did it express “the very highest respect for law”?
  3. Why did white moderates disappoint King? What historical and religious examples did he invoke as admirable? Would white moderates have found King's arguments persuasive? Why or why not?
  4. Where did King position himself and his followers along the spectrum of black society? What alternatives to nonviolence were advocated by others? Why did he gain “a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist”?
  5. King intended to reach an audience far beyond Birmingham with his letter. What groups did he hope to appeal to with his arguments, and why were they important to the civil rights movement?