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ALABAMA CLERGYMEN'S LETTER TO DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
[THE FOLLOWING IS A VERBATIM COPY OF THE PUBLIC STATEMENT DIRECTED TO
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. BY EIGHT ALABAMA CLERGYMEN, WHICH OCCASIONED
HIS REPLY.]
April 12, 1963
We the undersigned clergymen are among those who in January, issued "An
Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense," in dealing with racial
problems in Alabama. We expressed understanding that honest convictions
in racial matters could properly be pursued in the courts but urged
that decisions of those courts should in the meantime be peacefully
obeyed.
Since that time there had been some evidence of increased forbearance
and a willingness to face facts. Responsible citizens have undertaken
to work on various problems which caused racial friction and unrest. In
Birmingham, recent public events have given indication that we all have
opportunity for a new constructive and realistic approach to racial
problems.
However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of
our Negro citizens directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize
the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in
being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are
unwise and untimely.
We agree rather with certain local Negro leadership which has called
for honest and open negotiation of racial issues in our area. And we
believe this kind of facing of issues can best be accomplished by
citizens of our own metropolitan area white and Negro, meeting with
their knowledge and experience of the local situation. All of us need
to face that responsibility and find proper channels for its
accomplishment.
Just as we formerly pointed out that "hatred and violence have no
sanction in our religious and political tradition." We also point out
that such actions as incite to hatred and violence, however technically
peaceful those actions may be, have not contributed to the resolution
of our local problems. We do not believe that these days of new hope
are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham.
We commend the community as a whole and the local news media and law
enforcement officials in particular, on the calm manner in which these
demonstrations have been handled. We urge the public to continue to
show restraint should the demonstrations continue, and the law
enforcement officials to remain calm and continue to protect our city
from violence.
We further strongly urge our own Negro community to withdraw support
from these demonstrations, and to unite locally in working peacefully
for a better Birmingham. When rights are consistently denied, a cause
should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local
leaders, and not in the streets. We appeal to both our white and Negro
citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense.
Signed by:
C. C. J. CARPENTER, D.D., LL.D. Bishop of Alabama
JOSEPH A. DURICK, D.D. Auxiliary Bishop. Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham
Rabbi HILTON J. GRAFMAN, Temple Emmanu-El, Birmingham, Alabama
Bishop PAUL HARDIN, Bishop of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of
the Methodist Church.
Bishop HOLAN B. HARMON, Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the
Methodist Church
GEORGE M. MURRAY, Bishop Coadjutor, Episcopal Diocese of Alabama
EDWARD V. RAMSAGE, Moderator, Synod of the Alabama Presbyterian Church
in the United States
EARL STALLINGS, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.
Letter From Birmingham City Jail - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April
16, 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen,
While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your
recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely."
Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and
ideas...But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your
criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your
statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. (1)
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you
have been influenced by the argument of "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 affiliate
organizations all across the South...Several months ago our local
affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a
nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We
readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises.
So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because I have
basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because
injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their
little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the
boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his
little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to
practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am
compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home
town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for
aid. (2)
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. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow,
provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United
States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.
(3)
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) collection of
the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2) negotiation; 3)
self-purification; and 4) direct action. We have gone through all of
these steps in Birmingham...Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly
segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police
brutality is known in every section of the country. Its unjust
treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have
been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham
than in any city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and
unbelievable facts. On the basis of these conditions Negro leaders
sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders
consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation. (4)
Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the
leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating sessions
certain promises were made by the merchants - such as the promise to
remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. On the basis of
these promises Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama
Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any
type of demonstrations. As the weeks and months unfolded we realized
that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly
removed, returned; the others remained. (5)
As in so many experiences in the past, we were confronted with blasted
hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So
we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action,
whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case
before the conscience of the local and national community. Mindful of
the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of
self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and
we repeatedly asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept the blows
without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeals 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 a strong economic with with-drawl program
would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be
the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed
change. ... (6)
You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't
negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for
negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative
tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is
forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue so
that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as
part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking,
but I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have
earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive,
nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. ... The purpose of
our direct action program is to create a situation so crises-packed
that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. (7)
My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in
civil rights without legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long
and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up
their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and
give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us,
groups are more immoral than individuals. (8)
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 movement that was "well timed,"
according to the timetable of those 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 a piercing familiarity. This
"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." It has been a tranquilizing
Thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give
birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with
the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is
justice denied." (9)
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 the goal of political independence, and we still
creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at
a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the
stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen
vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your
sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen
curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters
with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro
brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an
affluent society; when 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 the tears welling up in her little
eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and
see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little
mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by
unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you
have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking in
agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so
mean?"; when 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; when you are humiliated day in and
day out by nagging signs reading "white" men and "colored"; when your
first name becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however
old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and when your wife and
mother are never given the respected title of "Mrs."; when you are
harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro,
living constantly at tip-toe stance, never quite knowing what to expect
next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are
forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"-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 willing to be
plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness
of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate
and unavoidable impatience. (10)
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws.
This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge
people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing
segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical
to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask: "How can you
advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in
the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just and there are
unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is
no law at all." (11)
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine
when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that
squares with the moral law or 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
Saint Thomas Aquinas, an 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 statutes are 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. To use
the words of Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, segregation
substitutes and "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship, and
ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is
not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, but it
is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is
separation. Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic
separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible
sinfulness? So I can urge men to disobey segregation ordinances because
they are morally wrong. (12)
Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An
unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not
binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand a
just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it
is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. (13)
Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon
a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating
because they did not have the unhampered right to vote. Who can say
that the legislature of Alabama which set up the segregation laws was
democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of
conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered
voters and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to
vote despite the fact that the Negro constitutes a majority of the
population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered
democratically structured? (14)
These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some
instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.
For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a
permit. Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a
permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve
segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of
peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust. (15)
I hope you can see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no
sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as the rabid
segregationist would do. This would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an
unjust law must do it openly, lovingly, (not hatefully as the white
mothers did in New Orleans when they were seen on television screaming
"nigger, nigger, nigger") and with a willingness to accept the penalty.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him
is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to
arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in
reality expressing the very highest respect for law. (16)
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience.
It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was
involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were
willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping
blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire.
To a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates
practiced civil disobedience. ... (17)
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish
brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have
been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost
reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling
block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens'
"Councilor" or the Ku Klux Klanner, 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 the presence of
justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek,
but I can't agree with your methods of direst action"; who
paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's
freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the
Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." 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. ... (18)
You spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was
rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent
efforts as those of an extremist. I started thinking about the fact
that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro
community. One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a
result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of
self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to
segregation, and a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a
degree of academic and economic security, and at points they profit
from segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems
of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred and
comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the
various black nationalist groups that are springing up over the nation,
the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement.
This movement is nourished by the contemporary frustration over the
continued existence of racial discrimination. It is made up of people
who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated
Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man in an incurable
"devil."... (19)
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom
will eventually come. This is what happened to the American Negro.
Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom;
something without has reminded him that he can gain it. Consciously and
unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans call the
Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa, and his brown and
yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, he is moving
with a sense of cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial
justice. (20)
Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one
should readily understand public demonstrations. The Negro has many
pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to get them out. So
let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city
hall; understand why he must have sit-ins and freedom rides. If his
repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will
come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it
is a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your
discontent." But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy
discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent
direct action. ... (21)
In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with
the hope that the white religious leadership in the community would see
the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, serve as the
channel through which our just grievances could get to the power
structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I
have been disappointed. (22)
I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their
worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the
law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say follow this decree
because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother. In
the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have
watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious
irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty
struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have
heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues with which the
Gospel has no real concern," and I have watched so many churches commit
themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange
distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular. (23)
So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a
religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a
tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight
leading men to higher levels of justice. (24)
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all
the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn
mornings I have looked at her beautiful churches with their lofty
spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her
massive religious education buildings. Over and over again I have found
myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?
Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with
words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor
Wallace gave the clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their
voices of support when tired, bruised and weary Negro men and women
decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright
hills of creative protest?" ... (25)
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 deep disappointment where
there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church; I love her sacred
walls. 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 fear of being
nonconformists. (26)
There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that
period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were 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 that transformed the mores of society.
Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got
disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers
of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the
conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," and had to obey God
rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They
were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They
brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial
contest. (27)
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 or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow
clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us 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 of their
scintillating beauty. (28)
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
M. L. King, Jr.
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