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A Letter From Jail

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across
your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and
untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and
ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my
desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other
than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would
have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are
men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely
set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope
will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you
have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders
coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization
operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across
the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and
financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the
affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in
a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary.
We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our
promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here
because I was invited here I am here because I have
organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.
Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their
villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the
boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left
his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to
the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to
carry the gospel of freedom beyond my...