We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it acts. You may well ask: "Why direct action? We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Some have been kicked out of their churches, and lost support of their bishops and fellow ministers. You spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. I vowed to change, to be change and I did and have been. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation. This may sound rather shocking. The other force is one of bitterness, and hatred comes perilously close to advocating violence. One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts are untimely. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstrations. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because they did not have the unhampered right to vote. There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. (Gifts may be made online or by check mailed to the Institute at 9600 Long Point Rd., Suite 300, Houston, TX, 77055.). Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Like so many experiences of the past we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. I really need help with this. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative. I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?" Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need not follow the do-nothingism of the complacent or the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. This is certainly a legitimate concern. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her massive religious education buildings. I had hoped that each of you would understand. I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, "follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother." At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the day after the runoff. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up over the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Melanie Ngai. They have gone through the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’ “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.” How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and fear of being nonconformists. Two were extremists for immorality, and thusly fell below their environment. Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Alabama Jail (1963) – Source: Twitter King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written after his imprisonment on April 12, 1963 in the Birmingham city jail following his participation in non-violent demonstrations against racism and segregation. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as the rabid segregationist would do. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation — and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. But since I feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country. Letter from Birmingham jail. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department. If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. So I have not said to my people, “Get rid of your discontent.” But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. — “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice? This is not a threat; it is a fact of history. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. To preserve the evil system of segregation. Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. Device #2 Understatement (Litotes) – Using words less severe than purpose requires Exercise 1 Write 5 satiric comments that include understatement by completing the following sentences. Maybe I was too optimistic. Despite the harsh treatment he and his fellow protestors had received, King continued his work in Birmingham. Let me give another explanation. Never before have I written a letter this long, (or should I say a book?). Posted on December 4, 2020 January 7, 2021 Author admin. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. I know a understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Letter From Birmingham Jail: Background Early in January of 1963, the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC), the civil rights organization headed by the Reverend Martin Luther King, targeted Birmingham, Alabama for a non-violent direct action campaign. Isn’t segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Is organized religion too inextricably bound to status-quo to save our nation and the world? The other force is one of bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. a statement that makes something seem less important or extreme than it is If I have said anything that understatesthe truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. I must close now. — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. Ballast on the Ship of State: Statesmanship as Human Excellence, Where We Find God: The Significance of Church Architecture, Classical Music Pairings for a Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner, Death on Drum: Gerard Manley Hopkins & the Mystery of Suffering, How We Split the World Apart: The Separation of Faith & Philosophy, Whittaker Chambers & the Nashville Agrarians: The Ground Beneath Their Feet, On Basics, Modern Monstrosities, & Learning Again to Know. We too wanted to see Mr. Connor defeated; so we went through postponement after postponement to aid in this community need. He has to get them out. 3) Self-purification and 4) Direct action. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. In the letter, King elaborated his defense on the non-violent resistance strategy against racism. We must come to see, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. So let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have sit-ins and freedom rides. But despite these notable exceptions I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood. The image above is a recreation of the Birmingham Jail at the time Martin Luther King Jr. was incarcerated there. The Imaginative Conservative is sponsored by The Free Enterprise Institute (a U.S. 501(c)3 tax exempt organization). There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. His primary audience throughout the letter was to the religious leaders as he was responding to an open … I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in longhand the letter which follows. But can this assertion be logically made? I commend you, Rev. That television show was 5. Birmingham City Jail. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. I have tried to stand between these two forces saying that we need not follow the "do-nothingism" of the complacent or the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. To a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of “somebodyness” that they have adjusted to segregation, and, on the other hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers? All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." As the weeks and months unfolded we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Now, what is the difference between the two? I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. I had hoped that each of you would understand. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized. Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. They will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose, facing jeering and hostile mobs and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. — “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Letter From Birmingham Jail. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern serve as the channel through which our just grievances could get to the power structure. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on the merchants for the needed changes. When we discovered that Mr. Conner was in the runoff, we decided again to postpone action so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. Now, there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is merely a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, where the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substance-filled positive peace, where all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." But again I have been disappointed. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it is willing to follow itself. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birmingham City Jail. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Maybe I expected too much. In this sense they have been publicly “nonviolent.” But for what purpose? Please consider donating now. Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population. And I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular. The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. There was a time when the church was very powerful. There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest. How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? My Dear Fellow Clergymen, While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. The "Letter From The Birmingham City Jail" was handwritten by Martin Luther King on April 16, 1963, then slipped out of the jail, turned over to his assistants on the outside, typed, copied, and widely disseminated to various organizations and individuals as an "open letter" in order to generate public support for Dr. King and his civil rights activities. But he will not see this without pressure from the devotees of civil rights. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was “well timed” according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. But, oh! I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders coming in." For years now I have heard the words [sic]"Wait!" But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. ~ Abraham Lincoln Memory Tip: You're positioning two things How Understatement Is Used And Examples Of It In Text PARALLELISM Author's Purpose: Example I’m sorry that I can’t join you in your praise for the police department. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. It breaks my heart that there is only one comment here. It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their public handling of the demonstrators. I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support of the white church. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at her beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” They will be young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’s sake. After this we felt that direct action could be delayed no longer. While imprisoned, MLK read a newspaper article written by eight clergymen, all of them arguing that MLK and the other nonviolent protestors were “extremists” … Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."
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