Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to the criticisms of other clergymen that his nonviolent campaign to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama is “unwise and untimely” (1), as well as presenting his concerns of the white moderate and the limited power of the church. Although his fellow clergymen urge King to wait for the inevitable end of segregation, he refutes that “time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation” (21) showing that rather than wait for change, the civil rights campaign must take advantage of the time provided. With the mayoral elections in Birmingham occurring during the time of the planned action (8), the movements plans were further deterred causing their window of opportunity to shrink without them getting in the way of Birmingham’s political agenda. King goes on to invalidate the claims of the religious leaders by stating that “freedom is never voluntarily

This is evident as segregation “gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a sense of inferiority” (13). He then gives grounds for his wrongful arrest, stating that a law should not “deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and press”(15). So despite segregation being present in many regulations set by the Birmingham government, King urges his audience to do what is morally right, no matter the legal repercussions. He then uses the biblical tale of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to provide a historical instance where a “higher moral law was at stake” (17). King goes on to provide more examples of civil disobedience that have led to the advancement of society, criticizing the actions of the law abiding white moderate by describing them as “dangerously structured dams that block the flow of societal progress”