Events that lead up to MLK’S 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

Spring of 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) organized the “Birmingham Campaign” The goal was to bring attention to—and, hopefully, change—the unequal treatment black Americans faced in Birmingham, Alabama.

Racial segregation of nearly all public and commercial facilities and services was legal and strictly enforced in Birmingham. 1960s obstetrics ward of a hospital, designed to segregate black and white mothers and babies

Fifty unsolved racially-motivated bombings between 1945 and 1962 had earned the city the nickname "Bombingham.”

Jobs in Birmingham available to blacks were limited to manual labor. In 1960, there were, for example, no black police officers, firefighters, bank tellers, or sales clerks and cashiers in stores.

The Birmingham Campaign’s goals included the following: Desegregation of the downtown stores Fair access to employment in stores and local government The re-opening of public parks (which had been closed because people of color attempted to visit them.) A bi-racial committee to oversee the desegregation of Birmingham’s schools (Remember this is nearly a decade after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court declared that “separate but equal” schools were unconstitutional.) Birmingham Police Commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor

The Birmingham Campaign consisted of nonviolent demonstrations, which sometimes falls under the category of “direct action” (as opposed to negotiating or writing letters) Marches

The Birmingham Campaign consisted of nonviolent demonstrations. Extended Boycotts— encouraging customers to not spend money at stores that would not hire or serve blacks

The Birmingham Campaign consisted of nonviolent demonstrations. Actual Lunch Counter Sit-in This is a group training for a lunch counter sit-in—practicing how to withstand verbal and physical assaults. Lunch Counter Sit-ins : in which black and white protesters would purposely break local laws that forbid people of color to sit at the counter

The Birmingham Campaign consisted of nonviolent demonstrations. Kneel-ins, also known as Pray-ins

Good Friday, 1963—Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. took part in a mass demonstration, a nonviolent march.

King and the others were arrested and jailed for taking part in what—at the time—was against local “assembly” laws

King was held in solitary confinement, and was not permitted to see his lawyers until President Kennedy intervened. Though he could have used funds from supporters to post bail, he deliberately chose to stay in prison to bring attention to the injustice in Birmingham.

A friend smuggled King a copy of the local Birmingham newspaper, which—the day King was arrested—featured an open letter entitled “A Call for Unity,” an editorial written by eight local clergymen.

From his jail cell, first in the margins and then on smuggled scraps, including toilet paper, King began drafting a response the clergymen’s editorial.