I wrote this academic essay of King’s “Letter to Birmingham Jail” this summer. I’m a great admirer of King, and although I don’t have time to write a post on his thoughts today, I don’t want to let today’s celebration of his life pass unmarked. May your message live on, Dr. King.
On April 12, 1963, with Martin Luther King in Birmingham jail and tension mounting in the city, eight white Alabama clergymen issued a statement condemning the “extreme measures” of the Birmingham demonstrations as “unwise and untimely.” Although King responded directly to this statement with his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the clergy’s statement didn’t actually address him at all. Aside from a brief disparaging remark about protests “directed and led in part by outsiders”, in fact, it never mentioned the leaders of the civil rights movement at all. (Carpenter et all) Instead, they addressed the statement towards “our Negro citizens.” King’s choice, then, to address his open letter to them directly, rather than to the black citizenry he depends on, strikes an odd chord at first. Wouldn’t his response be better directed to the same people the Alabama clergymen target? Why does he bother with those white preachers at all?
