Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

In his response to the clergymen's letter, written in 1963 during the height of the Civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King writes and responds to the three claims made by the clergymen. While he led a peaceful protest in Birmingham, he aimed to address the injustice and racism in this town. The local police then arrested King because he broke a new law that said you could not protest without a permit. Dr. Martin Luther King was just visiting Birmingham to engage in direct nonviolent action and deal with the injustice that was happening throughout the city. He was invited by someone in the Christian Movement for Human Rights to go to Birmingham.
King defends his views that are against the clergymen's claim that the racial injustices in Birmingham should be handled in the courts. The law King was arrested for was a law that went against one of the amendments. He writes that “a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or

He writes about the treatment Negroes had treated and used ethos to share emotions through the writing. King states that “the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation” (6) which shows that the leaders of Birmingham wouldn’t negotiate with Negro leaders to help stop bombings of Negro homes in the city. This reveals the faultiness of the claim written by the clergymen. King also responds to the clergymen’s statement of calling him an “outsider” because he did not live in Birmingham. He responds by saying “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states” (4). King then says that “Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country” (4). King was also the President of the Southern States Christian organization which means Alabama is in fact one of the states he