50th Anniversary of Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Today was the 50th anniversary of the writing of Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter from Birmingham jail. Dr. King penned this letter as a response to white clergymen who called his campaign of non-violent protests, quote, “unwise and untimely,” unquote, and had urged him not to intervene in Alabama’s segregationist policies.

The full text of that letter was published in a number of news outlets, including the New York Post Sunday magazine and The Atlantic Monthly. It was controversial at the time, but it’s now recognized as an iconic statement of the principles underlying the civil rights movement.

We thought this was a good time to take a closer look at that letter, so we’ve called upon, once again, Clayborne Carson. He is the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He’s a professor of history at Stanford University and he’s with us once again.

The entire report from NPR is definitely worth listening to here.