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Unit 3: Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Unit 3: Martin Luther King’s Letter Notes

from Birmingham Jail

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
3.1 Triumphs and Tragedies
3.2 Selma

3.3 Final Years
3.4 Assassination and Legacy
3.5 Textual Analysis

3.6 Summary
3.7 Keywords
3.8 Review Questions
3.9 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail;

• Make analysis of King’s letter.

Introduction

As early as in May 1962 Birmingham minister and SCLC member Fred Shuttles worth had
suggested that the SCLC ally with his own organization, the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights, to protest conditions in Birmingham. Birmingham was the wealthiest city in
Alabama, and a bastion of segregation. The mayor was a segregationist and the police commissioner,
Eugene “Bull” Conner was known for his hostile and sometimes violent treatment of blacks.
The Governor of the state was George Wallace, who had won office with promises of “segregation
forever.”

In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962 seventeen black churches and homes had been bombed,
including the home of Shuttles worth, who campaigned actively for civil rights. Although the
population of Birmingham was 40% African American, there seemed little hope for a political
solution to the racial divide: of 80,000 registered voters, only 10,000 were black.
King did not adopt Shuttles worth’s suggestion until early 1963, but once he did, he treated
it as a major campaign. In March King, along with Ralph Abernathy and a few other SCLC
organizers, set up headquarters in a room at a motel in one of Birmingham’s black neighbourhoods.
They began recruiting volunteers for protest rallies and giving workshops in nonviolent techniques.
Initially King head scheduled the protests to begin in time to disrupt Easter season shopping,

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