Letter Written By MLK From Birmingham City Jail, Alabama :: essays research papers

My Dear young man Clergy custodyWhile confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came crossways your recent statement portending my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I seek to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything early(a) 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 willing 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 signalise 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, Georg ia. We have some 85 agreed organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for military personnel 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 operate on 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 organisational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because in judge is here. effective as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their hamlets and carried their "thus saith the Lord" uttermost beyond the boundaries of their dental plate 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 present idly by in Atlanta and not be bear on 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.