Letter from Birmingham Jail

Open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr

Recreation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s cell in Birmingham Jail at the National Civil Rights Museum

The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider", King writes: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The letter, written in response to "A Call for Unity" during the 1963 Birmingham campaign, was widely published, and became an important text for the civil rights movement in the United States. The letter has been described as "one of the most important historical documents penned by a modern political prisoner",[1] and is considered a classic document of civil disobedience.[2][3][4][5]

## Background

[edit]

Birmingham, Alabama, was known for its intense segregation and attempts by some residents to combat said racism during this time period. For example, students at Miles College boycotted local downtown stores for eight weeks, which resulted in a decrease in sales by 40% and two stores desegregating their water fountains.[6] The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) had met with the Senior Citizens Committee (SCC) following this protest in hopes to find a way to prevent larger forms of retaliation against segregation. The SCC, a white civic organization, had agreed during this meeting to remove all "Whites Only" signs from downtown department stores, however failed to carry this promise through.[7] The citizens of Birmingham's efforts in desegregation caught King's attention, especially with their previous attempts resulting in failure or broken promises. Their desire to be active in fighting against racism is what made King certain that this was where he needed to begin his work.

King met with President John F. Kennedy on October 16, 1961, to address the concerns of discrimination in the south and the lack of action the government was taking; President Kennedy seemed to be in support of desegregation, but was slow to take action, with Birmingham officials refusing to leave office in an effort to prevent a younger generation of officials with less discriminatory beliefs being elected.[6] These leaders in Birmingham were legally not required to leave their office until 1965, meaning that something else had to be done to generate change.[7] King, passionate for this change, created "Project C", with 'C' standing for 'confrontation'. "Project C" was also referred to as the Birmingham campaign.[6]

The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham. The nonviolent campaign was coordinated by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins Jr. issued a blanket injunction against "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing". Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling.[8] On April 12, Martin Luther King was arrested with SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy, ACMHR and SCLC official Fred Shuttlesworth, and other marchers, while thousands of African Americans dressed for Good Friday looked on.[9]

King was met with unusually harsh conditions in the Birmingham jail.[10] An ally smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained "A Call for Unity", a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods.[11] The letter provoked King, and he began to write a response to the newspaper itself. King writes in Why We Can't Wait: "Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly Negro trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me."[12] Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, arranged $160,000 to bail out King and the other jailed protestors.[13]

## Summary and themes

[edit]

King's letter, dated April 16, 1963,[12] responded to several criticisms made by the "A Call for Unity" clergymen, who agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets. He also criticized the assertion that African Americans ought to wait patiently while these battles were fought in the courts.

King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were "outsiders" causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South. King wrote: "I was invited" by the SCLC's Birmingham affiliate, "because injustice is here" in what was probably the most racially-divided city in the country, with its brutal police, unjust courts, and many "unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches".[14] Referring to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated, King wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly [...] Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."[15] King also warned that if white people successfully rejected his nonviolent activists as rabble-rousing outside agitators, it could encourage millions of African Americans to "seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare."[16]

The clergymen also disapproved of tensions created by public actions such as sit-ins and marches. King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create "constructive" tension.[15] The tension was intended to compel meaningful negotiation with the white power structure without which true civil rights could never be achieved. Citing previous failed negotiations, King wrote that the black community was left with "no alternative".[15] "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."[17]

The clergymen also disapproved of the timing of public actions. In response, King said that recent decisions by the SCLC to delay its efforts for tactical reasons showed that it was behaving responsibly. He also referred to the broader scope of history, when "'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'"[18] Declaring that African Americans had waited for the God-given and constitutional rights long enough, King quoted "one of our distinguished jurists" that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."[18] Listing numerous ongoing injustices toward black people, including himself, King said, "Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, 'Wait.'"[18] Along similar lines, King also lamented the "myth concerning time" by which white moderates assumed that progress toward equal rights was inevitable and so assertive activism was unnecessary.[19] King called it a "tragic misconception of time" to assume that its mere passage "will inevitably cure all ills".[19] King wrote that progress takes time as well as the "tireless efforts" of dedicated people of good will.[19]

Against the clergymen's assertion that demonstrations could be illegal, King argued that civil disobedience was not only justified in the face of unjust laws but also was necessary and even patriotic: "The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" Anticipating the claim that one cannot determine such things, he again cited Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas by saying any law not rooted in "eternal law and natural law" is not just, while any law that "uplifts human personality" is just. Segregation undermines human personality, ergo, is unjust. Furthermore, he wrote: "I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."[20]

King cited Martin Buber and Paul Tillich with further examples from the past and present of what makes laws just or unjust: "A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law."[21] In terms of obedience to the law, King says citizens have "not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws" and also "to disobey unjust laws".[21] King stated that it is not morally wrong to disobey a law that pertains to one group of people differently from another. Alabama has used "all sorts of devious methods" to deny its black citizens their right to vote and thus preserve its unjust laws and broader system of white supremacy.[21] Segregation laws are immoral and unjust "because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority."[22] Even some just laws, such as permit requirements for public marches, are unjust when they are used to uphold an unjust system.

King addressed the accusation that the Civil Rights Movement was "extreme" by first disputing the label but then accepting it. Compared to other movements at the time, King found himself as a moderate. However, in his devotion to his cause, King referred to himself as an extremist. Jesus and other great reformers were extremists: "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?"[23] King's discussion of extremism implicitly responded to numerous "moderate" objections to the ongoing movement, such as US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's claim that he could not meet with civil rights leaders because doing so would require him to meet with the Ku Klux Klan.[24]

King expressed general frustration with both white moderates and certain "opposing forces in the Negro community".[25] He wrote that white moderates, including clergymen, posed a challenge comparable to that of white supremacists: "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."[26] King asserted that the white church needed to take a principled stand or risk being "dismissed as an irrelevant social club".[27] Regarding the black community, King wrote that we need not follow "the 'do-nothingism' of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the Black nationalist."[25]

In the closing, King criticized the clergy's praise of the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. The recent public displays of nonviolence by the police were in stark contrast to their typical treatment of black people and, as public relations, helped "to preserve the evil system of segregation".[27] It is wrong to use immoral means to achieve moral ends but also "to use moral means to preserve immoral ends".[28] Instead of the police, King praised the nonviolent demonstrators in Birmingham "for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes."[29]

## Publication

[edit]

First edition (1963)
publ. American Friends Service Committee

King wrote the first part of the letter on the margins of a newspaper, which was the only paper available to him. He then wrote more on bits and pieces of paper given to him by a trusty, which were given to his lawyers to take back to movement headquarters. Pastor Wyatt Tee Walker and his secretary Willie Pearl Mackey then began compiling and editing the literary jigsaw puzzle.[30] He was eventually able to finish the letter on a pad of paper his lawyers were allowed to leave with him.

An editor at The New York Times Magazine, Harvey Shapiro, asked King to write his letter for publication in the magazine, but the Times chose not to publish it.[31] Extensive excerpts from the letter were published, without King's consent, on May 19, 1963, in the New York Post Sunday Magazine.[32] The complete letter was first published as "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" by the American Friends Service Committee in May 1963[33][34] and subsequently in the June 1963 issue of Liberation,[35] the June 12, 1963, edition of The Christian Century,[36] and the June 24, 1963, edition of The New Leader. The letter gained more popularity as summer went on, and was reprinted in the July 1963 edition of The Progressive under the headline "Tears of Love" and the August 1963 edition[37] of The Atlantic Monthly under the headline "The Negro Is Your Brother".[38] King included a version of the full text in his 1964 book Why We Can't Wait.[a]

The letter was anthologized and reprinted around 50 times in 325 editions of 58 readers. These readers were published for college-level composition courses between 1964 and 1968.[39]

U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Alabama) led an annual bipartisan reading of the letter in the Senate during his tenure there in 2019 and 2020,[40][41] and passed the obligation to lead the reading to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) upon Jones' election defeat.

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ In a footnote introducing this chapter of the book, King wrote, "Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative of polishing it."[12]

## References

[edit]

### Footnotes

[edit]

1. ^ Greene, Helen Taylor; Gabbidon, Shaun L. (April 14, 2009). "Political Prisoners". Encyclopedia of Race and Crime. SAGE Publications. pp. 636–639\. ISBN 978-1-4522-6609-1.636-639&rft.pub=SAGE+Publications&rft.date=2009-04-14&rft.isbn=978-1-4522-6609-1&rft.aulast=Greene&rft.aufirst=Helen+Taylor&rft.au=Gabbidon,+Shaun+L.&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_9yAwAAQBAJ&q;=%22Political+prisoner%22&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
2. ^ Smith, Robert C. (2003). Encyclopedia of African American Politics. Facts On File. p. 43\. ISBN 978-1-4381-3019-4.
3. ^ Tiefenbrun, Susan (1992). "Semiotics and Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"". Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature. 4 (2). Taylor & Francis: 255–287\. doi:10.2307/743322. JSTOR 743322.255-287&rft.date=1992&rft_id=info:doi/10.2307/743322&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/743322#id-name=JSTOR&rft.aulast=Tiefenbrun&rft.aufirst=Susan&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.2307/743322&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
4. ^ Henretta, James A.; Edwards, Rebecca; Self, Robert O. (January 5, 2011). America's History, Combined Volume. Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 867\. ISBN 978-0-312-38789-1.
5. ^ Christenson, Ron (December 2, 2017). Political Trials: Gordian Knots in the Law. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-49857-9.
6. ^ a b c Sails-Dunbar, Tremaine T. (January 2017). "A Case Study Analysis of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail": Conceptualizing the Conscience of King through the Lens of Paulo Freire". Pursuit: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at the University of Tennessee. 8 (1): 139–148.139-148&rft.date=2017-01&rft.aulast=Sails-Dunbar&rft.aufirst=Tremaine+T.&rft_id=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db;=a9h&AN;=123884535&site;=ehost-live&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
7. ^ a b King, Martin Luther; Jr (1991), "Letter from Birmingham City Jail", CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE in focus, Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis, doi:10.4324/9780203003657_chapter_4, ISBN 978-0-203-32224-6
8. ^ "Negroes To Defy Ban". The Tuscaloosa News. Vol. 145, no. 101\. April 11, 1963. p. 21. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
9. ^ Rieder 2013, p. 38.
10. ^ Rieder 2013, p. 40: "King was placed alone in a dark cell, with no mattress, and denied a phone call. Was Connor's aim, as some thought, to break him?".
11. ^ Rieder 2013, p. 41.
12. ^ a b c King 1964, p. 64.
13. ^ Shlaes, Amity (March 20, 2020). "The Great Society: A New History with Amity Shlaes". Hoover Institution. Interviewed by Peter Robinson. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
14. ^ King 1964, pp. 65–66.
15. ^ a b c King 1964, p. 65.
16. ^ King 1964, p. 76.
17. ^ King 1964, p. 68.
18. ^ a b c King 1964, p. 69.
19. ^ a b c King 1964, p. 74.
20. ^ King 1964, p. 72.
21. ^ a b c King 1964, p. 71.
22. ^ King 1964, pp. 70–71.
23. ^ King 1964, p. 77.
24. ^ McCarthy 2010, p. 16.
25. ^ a b King 1964, p. 75.
26. ^ King 1964, p. 73.
27. ^ a b King 1964, p. 80.
28. ^ King 1964, p. 82.
29. ^ King 1964, p. 83.
30. ^ Walker, Wyatt (April 20, 1989), Interview with Wyatt Walker, about Fred Shuttlesworth, interviewed by Andrew Manis, Caanan Baptist Church, New York City: Transcription held at Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, Alabama, p. 24.
31. ^ Fox, Margalit (January 7, 2013). "Harvey Shapiro, Poet and Editor, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
32. ^ Bass 2001, p. 140.
33. ^ ""Letter from Birmingham Jail"". The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Stanford University. May 17, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
34. ^ "Letter from Birmingham City Jail". American Friends Service Committee. April 16, 2021. Archived from the original on November 17, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
35. ^ King, Martin Luther Jr. (1963). "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Liberation: An Independent Monthly. Vol. 8, no. 4\. pp. 10–16, 23. ISSN 0024-189X.10-16,+23&rft.date=1963&rft.issn=0024-189X&rft.aulast=King&rft.aufirst=Martin+Luther+Jr.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
36. ^ Reprinted in "Reporting Civil Rights, Part One", (pp. 777–794), American Journalism 1941–1963. The Library of America
37. ^ King, Martin Luther Jr. (August 1963). "Letter From Birmingham Jail". The Atlantic. ISSN 1072-7825. Archived from the original on January 20, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
38. ^ Rieder 2013, ch. "Free at Last?".
39. ^ Bloom 1999.
40. ^ "TUESDAY, APRIL 9: Senator Doug Jones to Lead Bipartisan Commemorative Reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail", Doug Jones, U.S. Senate, April 8, 2019, archived from the original on January 11, 2020
41. ^ "VIDEO: Senator Doug Jones Leads Second Annual Bipartisan Reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail on the Senate Floor", Doug Jones, U.S. Senate, June 16, 2020, archived from the original on October 5, 2020

### Bibliography

[edit]

* Bass, S. Jonathan (2001). Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2655-4.
* Bloom, Lynn Z. (1999). "The Essay Canon" (PDF). College English. 61 (4): 401–430\. doi:10.2307/378920. ISSN 0010-0994. JSTOR 378920. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2012.401-430&rft.date=1999&rft.issn=0010-0994&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/378920#id-name=JSTOR&rft_id=info:doi/10.2307/378920&rft.aulast=Bloom&rft.aufirst=Lynn+Z.&rft_id=http://sites.duke.edu/english117as_01_f2011/files/2011/11/Bloom-1999-Essay-Canon.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
* Fulkerson, Richard P. (1979). "The Public Letter as a Rhetorical Form: Structure, Logic, and Style in King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 65 (2): 121–136\. doi:10.1080/00335637909383465.121-136&rft.date=1979&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/00335637909383465&rft.aulast=Fulkerson&rft.aufirst=Richard+P.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
* Gilbreath, Edward (2013). Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Epic Challenge to the Church. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-3769-4.
* King, Martin Luther Jr. (1964). Why We Can't Wait. New York: Signet Classic (published 2000). ISBN 978-0-451-52753-0.
* McCarthy, Anna (2010). The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-498-4.
* Oppenheimer, David Benjamin (1993). "Martin Luther King, Walker v. City of Birmingham, and the Letter from Birmingham Jail" (PDF). U.C. Davis Law Review. 26 (4): 791–833\. ISSN 0197-4564. Retrieved October 12, 2017.791-833&rft.date=1993&rft.issn=0197-4564&rft.aulast=Oppenheimer&rft.aufirst=David+Benjamin&rft_id=http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/26/4/articles/DavisVol26No4_Oppenheimer.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">
* Rieder, Jonathan (2013). Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'Letter From Birmingham Jail'. New York: Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 978-1-62040-058-6.
* Snow, Malinda (1985). "Martin Luther King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' as Pauline Epistle". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 71 (3): 318–334\. doi:10.1080/00335638509383739. ISSN 1479-5779.318-334&rft.date=1985&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/00335638509383739&rft.issn=1479-5779&rft.aulast=Snow&rft.aufirst=Malinda&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Letter+from+Birmingham+Jail" class="Z3988">

## Further reading

[edit]

* Bass, S. Jonathan (2014). "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
* Carpenter, C. C. J.; Durick, Joseph Aloysius; Grafman, Milton L.; Hardin, Paul; Harmon, Nolan Bailey; Murray, George M.; Ramage, Edward V.; Stallings, Earl (1963). Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen (PDF). Retrieved October 12, 2017 - via Quia.
* King, Martin Luther Jr. (1963). Letter from Birmingham Jail (PDF). Stanford, CA: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
* "Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nonviolent Resistance". EDSITEment!. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
* Walker v. Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307 (1967).

## External links

[edit]

* Full text in HTML at the University of Pennsylvania
* King, Martin Luther Jr. (1963). Letter from Birmingham Jail (PDF). Stanford, CA: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
* Full text at Stanford Archived November 2, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
* A Reading of the Letter from Birmingham Jail on YouTube, from The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
* Panel discussion on "Letter from Birmingham Jail" with Julian Bond, Stephen L. Carter, Gary Hall, Walter Isaacson, Eric L. Motley, and Natasha Trethewey, February 24, 2014, C-SPAN

* v
* t
* e

Martin Luther King Jr.

Speeches, writings, movements, and protests

| Speeches|

* "Give Us the Ballot" (1957)
* "I Have a Dream" (1963)
* "How Long, Not Long" (1965)
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (1967)
* "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)

|

Writings|

* Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
* "What Is Man?" (1959)
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Strength to Love (1963)
* "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963)
* Why We Can't Wait (1964)
* Conscience for Change (1967)
* Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Movements
and protests|

* Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956)
* Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957)
* Albany Movement (1961–1962)
* Birmingham campaign (1963)
* March on Washington (1963)
* St. Augustine movement (1963–1964)
* Selma to Montgomery marches (1965)
* Chicago Freedom Movement (1966)
* Mississippi March Against Fear (1966)
* Anti-Vietnam War movement (1967)
* Memphis sanitation strike (1968)
* Poor People's Campaign (1968)

Organizations|

* Montgomery Improvement Association
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

People

| Family|

* Coretta Scott King (wife)
* Yolanda King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King III (son)
* Dexter King (son)
* Bernice King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King Sr. (father)
* Alberta Williams King (mother)
* Christine King Farris (sister)
* A. D. King (brother)
* James Albert King (grandfather)
* Alveda King (niece)

|

Other
leaders|

* Ralph Abernathy (mentor, colleague)
* Ella Baker (colleague)
* James Bevel (strategist / colleague)
* Dorothy Cotton (colleague)
* Jesse Jackson (protégé)
* Bernard Lafayette (colleague)
* James Lawson (colleague)
* John Lewis (colleague)
* Joseph Lowery (colleague)
* Benjamin Mays (mentor)
* Diane Nash (colleague)
* James Orange (colleague)
* Bayard Rustin (advisor)
* Fred Shuttlesworth (colleague)
* C. T. Vivian (colleague)
* Wyatt Walker (colleague)
* Hosea Williams (colleague)
* Andrew Young (colleague)

Assassination

* Lorraine Motel (now National Civil Rights Museum)
* Riots
* Funeral
* James Earl Ray
* Jack Kershaw
* U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)
* Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act
* Loyd Jowers
* Trial
* Conspiracy theories

Media

| Film|

* King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970 documentary)
* Our Friend, Martin (1999 animated)
* Boycott (2001 film)
* The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 (2008 documentary)
* Selma (2014 film)
* All the Way (2016 film)
* King in the Wilderness (2018 documentary)
* MLK/FBI (2020 documentary)
* Rustin (2023 film)

|

Television|

* King (1978 miniseries)
* "The First Store" (The Jeffersons, 1980)
* "Great X-Pectations" (A Different World, 1993)
* "The Promised Land" (New York Undercover, 1997)
* Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)
* "Return of the King" (The Boondocks, 2006)
* Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK (2011 documentary)
* Genius (MLK/X, 2024)

Plays|

* The Meeting (1987)
* The Mountaintop (2009)
* I Dream (2010)
* All the Way (2012)

Books|

* Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
* Bearing the Cross (1986)
* King: A Life (2023)

Illustrated|

* Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (1957 comic book)

Music|

* "Abraham, Martin and John" (Dion)
* "March! For Martin Luther King" (John Fahey)
* "Martin Luther King's Dream" (Strawbs)
* "Happy Birthday" (Stevie Wonder)
* "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (U2)
* "MLK" (U2)
* "King Holiday" (King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew)
* "By the Time I Get to Arizona" (Public Enemy)
* "Shed a Little Light" (James Taylor)
* "Up to the Mountain" (Patti Griffin)
* "Never Alone Martin" (Jason Upton)
* "Symphony of Brotherhood" (Miri Ben-Ari)
* Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King (1995 album)
* "A Dream" (Common featuring will.i.am)
* "Glory" (Common and John Legend)

Related|

* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc.
* King v. Trustees of Boston Univ.

Related topics

| Memorials and
eponymous locations|

* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* National Historical Park
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* National Civil Rights Museum
* U.S. Capitol Rotunda sculpture
* Oval Office bust
* Homage to King sculpture, Atlanta
* Hope Moving Forward statue, Atlanta
* Safe House Black History Museum
* Statues of Martin Luther King Jr.
* Atlanta
* Boston
* Denver
* Houston
* Jersey City
* Milwaukee
* Mexico City
* Newark
* Pueblo, Colorado
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco
* Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (Compton)
* Landmark for Peace Memorial, Indianapolis
* The Dream sculpture, Portland, Oregon
* Kennedy–King College
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.
* Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose
* Paris park
* Memorials to Martin Luther King Jr.
* King County, Washington
* Eponymous streets

|

Other topics|

* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* passage
* Big Six
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Authorship issues
* FBI–King suicide letter
* Martin Luther King Jr., A Current Analysis
* Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
* Season for Nonviolence
* America in the King Years
* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Lee–Jackson–King Day

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* SCOPE Project
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* American Friends Service Committee
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Juanita Abernathy
* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Sweatt v. Painter
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
* Olympic Black Power Statue

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal

Portals:

* United States
* Civil rights movement
* Society

Letter from Birmingham Jail at Wikipedia's sister projects:

* Quotations from Wikiquote
* Data from Wikidata

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