16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
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 statement 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 own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian
call for
aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I
cannot sit idly
by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. 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. Never again can we
afford to live with
the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States
can never be
considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am
sorry to
say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the
demonstrations. I am
sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social
analysis that deals
merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that
demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the
city's white
power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to
determine
whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone
through all
these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice
engulfs this
community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United
States. Its ugly
record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in
the courts.
There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in
any
other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of
these conditions,
Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently
refused to engage
in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's
economic
community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the
merchants--for
example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises,
the Reverend
Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
agreed to a
moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we
were the
victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.
As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep
disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action,
whereby
we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of
the local and
the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a
process of self
purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked
ourselves: "Are
you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of
jail?" We decided
to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for
Christmas, this is
the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program
would be
the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring
pressure to bear on
the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March, and
we
speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the
Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in
the run off,
we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the
demonstrations could
not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated,
and to this
end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we
felt
that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.
The rest of King's letter