Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail
The achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) are so great that it is nigh-on offensive to give a summary of his life in so brief a context. Instead, we will focus entirely on the circumstances of his contribution to prison literature, Letter from Birmingham Jail (also known as The Negro is Your Brother). As the title suggests, King wrote the letter whilst incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, following the Birmingham campaign. In 1963, King led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s nonviolent direct action against racial segregation and economic injustice, comprising sit-ins and marches to provoke negotiations with the city’s officials.
Footage of police using water cannons and dogs against the peaceful protestors – many of whom were women and children – caused a wave of support for the protestors, culminating in positive changes being made. However, when King was arrested early in the campaign (for the 13th time), he faced opposition from within the SCLC for his insistence on street protest. Undaunted, from his cell he penned what became a fundamental document in the Civil Rights Movement, in which he defends the (eventually vindicated) need for visible, public protests: ‘the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative’.
The open letter’s powerful rhetoric makes a convincing argument for nonviolent protest that is simultaneously both impassioned and rational:
Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
He was, of course, right.