Martin Luther King summary Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested on April 12, 1963 for breaking an unjust law against political demonstrations. After King was unjustly held without his right to a lawyer, he penned the letter from birmingham jail. To begin, Dr. King starts off by letting the clergymen know he gets a lot of "criticism," shall we say, and that he and his people mostly don't have time to pay attention to the haters. But in this case, he's making an exception and speaking for what he has accomplished in the civil rights movement. While critics said how he was an outsider involving himself in something he had no right to. King goes on to explain that he's not an outsider, as they claimed. The protesters are based in Atlanta, and they've been called to Birmingham by a local affiliate. The clergymen have made an error in criticizing the protestors without equally exploring the racist causes of the injustice that is being protested in their state of Birmingham.King then explains in …show more content…
First, the SCLC confirmed that Birmingham had been practicing institutionalized racism, and then attempted to negotiate with white business leaders there. The negotiations broke down due to the promises white men broke, so the SCLC planned to protest through “direct action.” Before beginning protests, however, they underwent a period of “self-purification,” to determine whether they were ready to work nonviolently, and suffer indignity and arrest. When they decided they could, they then prepared to protest.. Dr. King understands that the clergymen value negotiation over protest, but he insists that negotiations cannot happen without protest, which creates a crisis and tension that forces unwilling parties (in this case, the white business owners) to negotiate in good faith with black members of