The Letter From Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 16, 1963, is (and was) more than a mere response to questions posed by eight members of the clergy, all of them Caucasian in ethnicity. The letter in fact was a kind of manifesto for basic human rights under the Constitution of the United States. It is thought of today by many scholars – with perfect validation – as the most powerful justification, explanation, and motivation for the Civil Rights Movement.
             Although King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., is probably more well-known (and offered more soaring rhetoric, more memorable lines), it cannot compare to the point-by-point scholarship and theological craftsmanship that went into King's Letter From Birmingham Jail (hereafter referred to as Letter).
             Indeed, the Letter is viewed today as far more than an answer to questions posed by members of the Alabama clergy, or as a reasoned response to Alabama Governor George Wallace's militant 1963 pronouncement at his inauguration that he would defy federal law and not permit integration of public schools.
             In the Letter, King explains to the clergymen why, as "an outsider coming in," he made the decision to take part in the Birmingham demonstrations; "I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere," King went on, "is a threat to justice everywhere."
             As to the social and racial injustices King is speaking of, a bit of background into conditions in the South – and specifically, in Alabama – is worthy of some space in this paper. In fact, just a few years prior to the civil rights activism in Birmingham (that saw King arrested and placed in a jail), the lynching of African Americans in Alabama was not uncommon. The New York Times (August 30, 1933) reported that two "Negroes" were found lynched near...