Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail'
Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King wrote this landmark missive. It was republished several months later in The Atlantic.
King's famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," published in The Atlantic
as "The Negro Is Your Brother," was written in response to a public
statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders
of the South. It stands as one of the classic documents of the
civil-rights movement.
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. If
I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my
secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day,
and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that
you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set
forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be
patient and reasonable terms.
I am in Birmingham because injustice is here ...I am cognizant of the
interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in
Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.
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. Never
again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside
agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
considered an outsider ...
We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our
God-given and constitutional rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are
moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and
we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of
coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never
felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait." But when you have
seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your
sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen
curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters
with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million
Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of
an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and
your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old
daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just
been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little
eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and
see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little
mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by
unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have
to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing
pathos, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when
you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night
after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no
motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by
nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name
becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you
are) and your last name becomes "John," and when your wife and mother
are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day
and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly
at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued
with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a
degenerating sense of "nobodyness"--then you will understand why we find
it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs
over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of
injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I
hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience
...
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to
break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. 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. One may well ask, "How
can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is
found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws,
and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An
unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine
when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares
with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is
out of harmony with the moral law. 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. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law
that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are
unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality
...
There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in
its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of
parading without a permit. 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.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil
disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral
law was involved. 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. To
a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates
practiced civil disobedience.
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. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I
would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was
illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain
principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would
openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws ...
I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even
if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of
freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of
America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is
tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the
pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence,
we were here ...If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop
us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our
freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will
of God are embodied in our echoing demands ...
Never before have I written a letter this long--or should I say a
book? I'm afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time. 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?
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. If I have said anything in this letter that is an
overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience
that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to
forgive me.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
The full text of this article is not available on The Atlantic's site, but it can be found here.
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