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-----Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
------An American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
------On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance
------King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
------The King and Williams families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893.
-----The King and Williams families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893.
------In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators.
------On March 21, 1965, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capitol.
------- On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000, gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
-------In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday honoring the legacy of the slain civil rights leader.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to criticism of the nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1963. In the letter, King responds specifically to a statement published in a local newspaper by eight white clergymen, calling the protests “unwise and untimely” and condemning to the “outsiders” who were leading them.

He begins his letter by calling the clergymen people of “genuine goodwill” and acknowledging the sincerity of their concern, setting a tone of reasonable dialogue. He then responds to the claims that he is an outsider by informing his critics that as the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was invited to Birmingham to support the African American residents fight for their civil rights. Beyond that, he argues that he is in Birmingham “because injustice is here,” and like the Apostle Paul and other early Christians, he must answer the call for aid.

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Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King Jr.

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------Since the late 19th century, African-Americans had been oppressed and subjugated
through state legislation known as “Jim Crow” laws. These laws kept black from voting by
creating poll taxes and often bogus literacy tests. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks in public
places, including schools, train cars, theaters, and restaurants.
-------In addition, blacks were brutalized and terrorized in their daily lives through the violent actions of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists.
-------The 14th and 15th amendments affirmed the rights of blacks and weak
civil rights legislation had been passed at the federal level, little to no federal intervention
occurred to protect these rights. That changed in 1954 when the Supreme Court decided, in the
Brown vs. Board of Education case, that segregation was illegal in schools. This decision
catalyzed a wave of popular action known as the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., a Baptist preacher, became the de facto leader of this social movement, staging nonviolent demonstrations meant to encourage southerners to abide by the federal policies, and to
encourage the federal government to intervene.
--------In 1963, most of the South was still segregated and southern governments fought the extension of rights to black Americans. Dr. King staged one of his protests in Birmingham, Alabama, and as with most demonstrations for racial equality, it was met with violence.
---------The police beat the peaceful protesters, turned attack dogs on them, and
turned powerful fire hoses on young students. Dr. King was arrested, and while he was in jail,
eight members of the local clergy wrote to him, urging him to stop his movement for rights and
equality. They said that although his protests were non-violent, they invited and incited violence.
They argued that the South was not ready for racial equality and that he should be more patient.
---------One century after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, beginning by scribbling in the
margins of a newspaper he had in his cell, Dr. King wrote a response to those who thought
blacks should continue to wait and suffer through oppression.

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Letter from Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King Jr.

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As a Baptist minister, King has a depth of knowledge of the Bible and history of Christianity, which he uses to his advantage in this letter. He knows that comparing the protesters to the early Christians places his critics in the role of the enemies of freedom. He then reminds his critics that the protesters are American citizens, and therefore they are not outsiders in their own country.

I have read Dr. MLK's letter several times and refer to keep my mind on track. King asks good law biding people to look at who or what is actually disrupting the peace. He asks moderates who usually refrain from getting involved and want to keep the peace at all cost, to use their good values to condemn that which is not truly within their values. He asked them to speak out against injustice. Their silence only condones injustice and he calls them out for it. His letter should be read or discussed in every media outlet. MLK Jr was such a great intelligent peaceful man and this letter proves it.