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My dear fellow clergymen while confined here in the Birmingham City Jail I came across your recent statement calling my present activities unwise and untimely seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas if I saw dance all the criticism that criticisms across my desk my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day and I would have no time for constructive work but since I feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth I want to try to answer your statement and what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham since you have been influenced by the view which argues against outsiders coming in I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference an organization operating in every southern state with headquarters in Atlanta Georgia we have some 85 affiliated organizations across the south and one of them is the Alabama Christian movement for Human Rights frequently we share staff educational and financial resources with our affiliates several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a non-violent direct action program if such would be necessary we readily consented and when our came we lived up to our promise so I along with several members of my staff I'm here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here but more basically I'm in Birmingham because injustice is here just as a prophet so the century BC left their villages and carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the greco-roman world so am i compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown like Paul I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid moreover I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and States I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham 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 you deplore the demonstrations taken place in Birmingham but your statement I'm sorry to say fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations I am sure that you would want to rest content with a superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes it is unfortunate that demonstrations have taken place in Birmingham but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative in a non-violent campaign there are four basic steps collection of the facts to determine whether in justices exist negotiation self purification and direct action we have gone through all these steps in Birmingham there can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States its ugly record of brutality is widely known Negroes have experience grossly unjust treatment in the court there have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation these are the hard brutal facts of the case on the basis of these conditions Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers that the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation then last September came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community in the course of the negotiations certain promises were made by the merchants for example to remove the stole humiliating racial signs on the basis of these promises the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations as a weeks and months went by we realize that we were the victims of a broken promise a few signs briefly removed returned the others remained as in so many past experiences were hopes had been blasted and the shadow dove deep disappointment settle upon us we had no alternative except to prepare for direct action whereby we would present our bare bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community mindful of the difficult is involved we decided to undertake a process of self purification we began a series of workshops on non-violence and we repeatedly asked ourselves are you able to accept blows without retaliating are you able to endure the ordeal of jail we decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season realizing that except for Christmas this is the main shopping period of the year knowing that his strong economic withdrawal program would be the byproduct of direct action we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change then it occurred to us that birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March and we speeded Lee decided to postpone action until after election day when we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety youjung Bull Connor had piled up enough votes to be in the runoff we decided again to postpone action until the day after the runoff so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues like many others we waited to see mr. Connor defeated and to this end we endured postponement after postponement having aided in this community need we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer you may we'll ask why direct action why sit-ins marches and so forth is a negotiation a better path you're quite right in calling for negotiation indeed this is a very purpose of direct action nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue it seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored my citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resistor may sound rather shocking but I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension I have earnestly opposed violent tension but that is a type of constructive nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individual 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 non-violent Gadd fries to create the kind of tension in society that will help man rise from the dark depth of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood the purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation I therefore concur with you and you'll call for negotiation to long has our beloved South man been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue my friends I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure lamentably it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily individuals may see the moral life and voluntarily give up their unjust posture but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us groups tend to be more amoral than individuals we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed frankly I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well timed in the view of though who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation for years now I have heard the word wait it rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity this wait has almost always meant never we must come to see with one of our distinguished jurists that justice too long delayed is justice denied we have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and god-given rights the nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence but we still creep that horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the sting dots of segregation to say wait but when you have seen vicious mobs lent show mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society and you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that fun town is closed to colored children and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to farm in her little middle sky and see her beginning to start distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking daddy why do white people treat colored people so mean and you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no Motel will accept you and you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white in color and your first name becomes [ __ ] your middle name becomes boy however old you are and your last name becomes John and your wife and mother are never given the respected title mrs. when you are hired by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are negro living constantly at tiptoe stands never quite knowing what to expect next and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments when you are forever fighting a degrading and degenerating sense of no botanist then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer to be plunged into the abyss of despair I hope sirs you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience you express a great deal of anxiety of our willingness to break laws this is certainly a legitimate concern since we so diligently urged people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 of law and segregation and the public schools at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws one may well ask how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others the answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws just and unjust I would be the first 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 san agustin that an unjust law is no law at all now what is the difference between the two how does one determine whether the law is just or unjust a just law is a man-made cold that squares with the moral law of the law of God an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law to put it in the terms of st. Thomas Aquinas and unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law any law that uplifts human personality is just any law that degrades human personality is unjust all segregation statues are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality it gives a segregate or a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority segregation to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber substitutes an i it relationship for an ID our relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things in segregation is not only politically economically and sociologically unsound it is morally wrong and sinful Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation is not segregation and existential expression of man's tragic separation his awful estrangement his terrible sinfulness thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court for it is morally right and I can add them to disobey segregation ordinances for they are morally wrong let us consider a more concrete expression of just and unjust laws and unjust laws of code that a numerical a power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself this is difference made legal but the set by the same token a just laws a code that a majority compels my Laura did to follow and that is it is willing to follow itself this is sameness made legal let me give a lot of explanation 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 our devising the law who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state segregation laws was democratically elected throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters and there are some counties in which even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population not a single Negro is registered can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured sometimes the law is just on its face and unjust in its application I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out in no sense why advocate evading or defying the law as would the rabbit segregationists that would lead to anarchy one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly lovingly and with a willingness to accept the penalty I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts a penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for law of course that is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience it was evidence sublimely and the refusal refusal of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake it was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire to a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience in our own nation the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience we should never forget that everything adult Hitler did in Germany was legal and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal it was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew and Hitler's Germany even so I am sure that had I lived in Germany at the time I would have aided and coveted my Jewish brothers if today I lived in a communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti religious laws I must make two honest confessions to you my Christian and Jewish brothers first I must must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negroes great stumbling block and his stride toward freedom is not the white Citizens Council er of the Ku Klux Klan ah but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to Justice who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is a presence of justice who constantly says I agree with you and the goal you seek but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom who lives by mythical concept of time and who constantly advises a negro to wait for a more convenient season shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill-will lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that blocked the flow of social progress I had hoped that white moderates would understand that the present tension in the south is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight to a substantive and positive peace and which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality actually we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension we merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive we bring it out into Oakland where it can be seen and dealt with like a ball that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be open with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light injustice must be exposed with all the tension its exposure creates to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured in your statement you assert that our actions even though peaceful must be condemned because they precipitate violence but is this a logical assertion isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical enquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion we must come to see that as the federal courts have consistently affirmed it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence society must protect the robbed and punished the robber I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning in relation to the struggle for freedom more and more I feel that the people of ill-will have used time much more effectively than have the people of goodwill we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people 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 right to do right now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity you speak of our activity in Birmingham is extreme at first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as oh and it comes perilously 1 is a force of complacency made up in part of Negroes who as a result of long years of oppression are so drained of self-respect and a sense of somebody 'no stood to segregation and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who because of a degree of academic and economic security because in some ways they profit by segregation have become insensitive to the problems of the masses the other forces one of bitterness and hatred and it comes perilously close to advocating violence it is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation nourished by the Negroes frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America who have absolutely repudiated Christianity and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible devil I have tried to stand between these two forces saying that we need emulate neither the do-nothing ISM of the complacent law the hatred and despair of the black nationalists so that is a more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest I'm grateful to God that through the influence of the Negro Church the way of non-violence became an integral part of our struggle if this philosophy had not emerged by now the hatred and despair of the black nationalist so that is a more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest I'm grateful to God that through the influence of the Negro Church the way of non-violence became an integral part of our struggle this philosophy had not emerged by now many streets of the south word I am convinced be flowing with blood and I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as rabble rousers and outside agitators those of us who employ nonviolent direct action they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts millions of Negroes will out of frustration and despair seek solace and security and black nationalist ideologies a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare oppressed people cannot remain depressed forever the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself and that is what has happened to the American Negro something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom and something without has reminded him that it can be gained consciously unconscious consciously he has been caught up by the spirit of the times and with his black brothers of Africa and his browned and yellow brothers of Asia South America and the Caribbean the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice if one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community one should readily understand our public demonstrations are taking place the Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations and he must release them so let him March let him make prayer pilgrimages to the City Hall let him go on Freedom Rides and try to understand why he must do so if his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways they will seek expression through violence this is not a threat but a fact of history so I have not said to my people get rid of your discontent rather I have tried to say that this normal and help the discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of non-violent direct action and now this approach is being termed extremists but though I was initially disappointed of being categorized as as an extremist as I continue to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label was not Jesus and extremists for love love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you was not Amos and extremists for justice let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream was not tall and extremists for the Christian gospel I ban my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ was not Martin Luther an extremist here I stand I cannot do otherwise so help me God was not John Bunyan an extremist I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience and Abraham Lincoln this nation cannot survive half-slave and half-free and Thomas Jefferson we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal so the question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremists we will be will we be extremists for hate awful love will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice for the extension of justice in that dramatic scene on Calvary's Hill three men were crucified we must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime the crime of extremism to word extremists for your morality and thus fell below that environment the other Jesus Christ was an extremist for love truth and goodness and thereby rose above his environment perhaps the South the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need perhaps I was too optimistic perhaps I expected too much I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be routed out by a strong persistent and determined action let me take note of my other major disappointment I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church in its leadership of course there are some notable exceptions and I am NOT unmindful of these but despite these notable exceptions I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church I do not say this is one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church I say this as a minister of the gospel who loves the church who was nurtured in its bosom who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cords of life shall lengthen when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery Alabama a few years ago I felt we would be supported by the white church but this never came through all too many ministers found themselves more cautious than courageous and remained solid behind the safe security of stained-glass windows in spite of my shattered dream I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the Justice of our cause and would be moral concern would serve as a channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure I had hoped that each of you would understand Stan but again I have been disappointed I've heard numerous others seven religious leaders admonish their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law but I have longed to hear white ministers declare follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother in the midst of blatant injustice is inflicted upon the negro I have watched white churchmen stand on the sidelines and mouthed pious irrelevance 'as and sanctimonious trivialities in the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice I've heard many men as to say those are social issues with which the gospel has no concern I have travelled the length and breadth of Alabama Mississippi in all the other southern states on sweltering summer days and Chris Alta mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches for their lofty spires pointing heavenward I have beheld the impressive outlines of a massive religious education buildings over and over I have found myself asking what kind of people worship here who is their God where were their bosses when the lips of governor bonnet dripped with words of interposition and nullification where were they when governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred where were their voices of support and bruised and where a Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency the bright hills of creative protests yes these questions are still in my mind in deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church but be assured that my tears have been tears of love there can be no disappointment where there is not deep love yes I love the church how could I do otherwise I am in the rather unique position of being the son the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers yes I see the church as the body of Christ but oh how we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformist there was a time when the church was very powerful at the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed in those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion it was a thermostat to transform the mores of society whenever there are the Christians in at a town the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being disturbers of the peace and outside agitators of the Christians pressed on and the conviction that they were a colony of heaven called by God to obey God rather than man small in number they were big in commitment they were to God and toxicated to be astronomically intimidated things are different now so often the contemporary church is a weak ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound but the judgment of God is upon the church as never before if today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of their elite it will lose its authentic ring and forfeit the loyalty of millions and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century perhaps I have once again been too optimistic his organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and world perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church the church within the church as a true ecclesia and the hope of the world but again I am thankful to God that some noble Souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom they have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany Georgia with us they have gone down the highways of the south on torturous rides for freedom yes they have gone to jail with us some have been dismissed from that churches have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers but they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times they have carved the tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of despair I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour but even if the church does not come to the aid of justice I have no despair about the future I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham even if our motives are at present misunderstood we will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation because of of America is freedom abused and scon though we may be our destiny is tied up with America's destiny before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth we were here before the pen of Jefferson it's the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history we were here for more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages they made cotton King they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us the opposition we now face will surely fail we will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the Almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands never before have I written so long a letter I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell other than write long letters think long thoughts and pray long prayers if I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience I beg you to forgive me if I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than Brotherhood I beg God to forgive me I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you not as an integrationist as a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother that has all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood Martin Luther King jr.