Letter from Birmingham Jail
Incarcerated minister's defense of protest
Letter from Birmingham Jail is a 1963 open letter by Martin Luther King Jr., written while imprisoned for participating in nonviolent protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
Addressed to white clergymen who had criticized the demonstrations as untimely, the letter defends civil disobedience and the moral obligation to break unjust laws.
It remains a foundational text in American civil rights literature: We read Letter from Birmingham Jail in my ethics class.
- Martin Luther KingCivil rights movement leader
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
- injusticeDenial of fair treatment
- nonviolencePrincipled rejection of force
- segregationForced separation by group
Alabama · protest · clergy · conscience · oppression · freedom · equality · 1963 · civil disobedience · moral · activism · arrested · racist · dignity · peaceful · struggle · tension · brotherhood
Letter from Birmingham JailUncle Tom's Cabin
Letter from Birmingham Jailsermon
Clergy's worship address
I Have a Dream · Gettysburg Address · Declaration of Independence · legal brief · manifesto
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