Letter From Birmingham Jail - Summary and Themes

Summary and Themes

King's letter was a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call for Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets. They criticized Martin Luther King, calling him an “outsider” who causes trouble in the streets of Birmingham. To this, King referred to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated. He wrote, “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… Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider…” King expressed his remorse that the demonstrations were taking place in Birmingham but felt that the white power structure left the black community with no other choice.

The clergymen also disapproved of the immense tension created by the demonstration. To this, King affirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were using nonviolent direct action in order to cause tension that would force the wider community to face the issue head on. They hoped to create tension: a nonviolent tension that is needed for growth. King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions, true civil rights could never be achieved.

The clergymen also disapproved of the timing of the demonstration. However, King believed that "this 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" King declared that they had waited for these God-given rights long enough and that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Against the clergymen’s assertion that the demonstration was against the law, he argued that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

King addressed the accusation that the civil rights movement was "extreme", first disputing the label but then accepting it. He argues that Jesus and other heroes were extremists and writes: "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?" His discussion of extremism implicitly responds to numerous "moderate" objections to the civil rights movement, such as President Eisenhower's claim that he could not meet with civil rights leaders because doing so would require him to meet with the Ku Klux Klan.

The letter includes the famous statement "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", as well as quotes the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, spoken in 1958 at the University of Cincinnati School of Law: "ustice too long delayed is justice denied".