Notes on Dr' Martin Luther King, Jr', Letter from Birmingham Jail 1963

1
Notes on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter
from Birmingham Jail (1963)
2
Some Preliminary Questions

• What was the situation in Birmingham in 1963?
• What was Operation C? Was it successful?
• Why did King write his letter? Who was his
  intended audience?

3
Main Points in Kings Letter

• Four Steps of any Nonviolent Campaign
• Distinction between Just and Unjust Laws
• Nonviolent Resistance as a Middle Path between
  Passivity and Violent Resistance
• The Nature of Time

4
Four Basic Steps in any Nonviolent Campaign

• Collection of the Facts
• Negotiation
• Self-Purification
• Direct Action

5
Unjust and Just Laws

• An unjust law is one out of harmony with the
  moral law.
• Any law that uplifts human personality is just.
  Any law that degrades human personality is
  unjust.
• Application to segregation
• A law is unjust if a minority group forced to
  obey but didnt help enact, or if the majority
  doesnt have to follow it, or if it is unfairly
  applied in practice.

6
Nonviolent Resistance

• We know through painful experience that freedom
  is never voluntarily given by the oppressor it
  must be demanded by the oppressed.
• King stresses the need for creative extremism
  that avoids both the do-nothingism of the
  complacent or apathetic and the despair of
  mindless violence.

7
The Nature of Time

• A tragic misconception of time that change will
  come about inevitably King insists that time
  itself is neutral it can be used either
  destructively or constructively....Human progress
  never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability
  it comes through the tireless efforts of men
  willing to be co-workers with God, and without
  this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of
  the forces of social stagnation. We must use
  time creatively, in the knowledge that the time
  is always ripe to do right.
• Justice too long delayed is justice denied.