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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL 1963

Milestone Documents in African American History

King promotes Why We Can't Wait. By New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Albertin, Walter photographer. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God…”

Overview Martin Luther King, Jr., was the eloquent voice of the modern civil rights movement. More than any other individual, he articulated the aspirations and grievances of African Americans who sought the rights promised by the U.S. Constitution. King pioneered the use of civil disobedience against racial segregation and discrimination. His powerful oratory invoked religious and patriotic imagery in support of full civil rights for all Americans. He inspired thousands of sympathizers to join

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his nonviolent crusade and persuaded untold millions of the justice of his cause.

King was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist preachers. A precocious student, he entered Morehouse College at age fifteen. He prepared for a career in the ministry by studying at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and then pursued doctoral studies at Boston University, receiving the degree in 1955. In 1954, he accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a Montgomery seamstress, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Four days later, King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, an organization formed to protest the city's segregated transportation system. King and the association conducted a yearlong boycott of city buses. His advocacy of nonviolent resistance against segregation adapted techniques used by India's famous leader Mohandas K. Gandhi to the American situation. When the buses finally were integrated in December 1956, King was hailed as a dynamic young leader of the emerging civil rights movement.

Over the next decade King remained the foremost champion of African American equality. His success in Montgomery inspired other activists to develop directaction tactics for use in the civil rights movement. In 1960 King supported African American college students who staged sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters. When the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in 1961, King urged them to continue their battle to integrate interstate transportation. In Albany, Georgia, the following year King led mass marches against segregation, resulting in hundreds of arrests, but he was unable to wrest any concessions from an unyielding city administration. The lessons King learned from his Albany setback were applied in Birmingham, Alabama, where he spearheaded weeks of demonstrations against segregation in 1963. While confined in the Birmingham jail, King penned a passionate letter defending his confrontational methods. National opinion turned in favor of civil rights when Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor turned police dogs and fire hoses on youthful protesters. The Birmingham crisis persuaded President John F. Kennedy to sponsor legislation requiring integration of public accommodations. On August 28, 1963, King delivered his memorable, “I have a dream” speech at a Washington, D.C., rally of 250,000 people supporting Kennedy's civil rights bill.

King's leadership of the civil rights movement was recognized in 1964 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His prominence brought increased scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose director, J. Edgar Hoover, increased his surveillance of King's activities and orchestrated efforts to discredit his leadership. After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, King turned his attention to voting rights. When Alabama state troopers attacked demonstrators attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, public outrage again forced the federal government to act. Five months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which protected African American citizens attempting to vote.

King responded to growing unrest in urban ghettoes by leading a 1966 crusade against slum housing in Chicago. He also raised his voice to condemn the Vietnam War. His 1967 speech at Riverside Church in New York City, in which he spoke out against the war, placed him in the front rank of antiwar activists. In the final year of his life, King concentrated on issues of economic justice. He began organizing a campaign to bring delegations of poor people to Washington, D.C., to lobby for increased antipoverty funding. A request to support striking sanitation workers drew King to Memphis, Tennessee, where, on April 4, 1968, he was killed by a shot from a high-powered rifle. James Earl Ray, a white man with a prison record, was convicted of King's murder. In 1986, the nation honored King's memory when his birthday was declared a national holiday.

Context Birmingham had long had a reputation as one of the most racist and violent cities in the South. Starting in 1947 a series of bombings targeted the homes of African Americans who had moved into previously all-white neighborhoods. The Ku Klux Klan operated openly and was widely believed to be responsible for these attacks. When the outspoken black minister the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth formed the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to press for civil rights, the terrorists struck his home and church. Because no one was apprehended for any of the more than fifty explosions, Birmingham blacks concluded that the police were in league with the bombers. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, an outspoken segregationist, used all resources at his disposal to preserve the Jim Crow system (laws and social practices that segregated and discriminated against African Americans).

Connor's heavy-handed methods aroused the ire of more temperate civic leaders, who hoped to create a more favorable image for their city. These leaders spearheaded an effort to oust Connor by shifting the form of city government from three commissioners to a mayor and a city council. On April 2, 1963, Birmingham voters rejected Connor and elected Albert Boutwell, a moderate segregationist, as their mayor. The losers immediately sued to prevent the new administration from

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taking office. For a time Birmingham had two competing city governments.

In January 1963 the SCLC decided to make Birmingham the site of its next major civil rights drive. The SCLC had suffered a serious setback the previous year in Albany, Georgia, where, despite months of nonviolent struggle and hundreds of arrests, African Americans were unable to wrest any concessions from an intransigent city government. Shuttlesworth, the most prominent Birmingham civil rights activist, assured the SCLC board that his city would be different; Connor could be counted on to react in his usual heavy-handed fashion. King also had a larger objective in mind: He hoped that by creating a crisis in Birmingham, he could force President John F. Kennedy to take much-needed action on civil rights.

After a delay in demonstrations until the Boutwell-Connor runoff election was resolved, protests began on April 3 with sit- ins and picketing at downtown department stores. On April 10 Judge W. A. Jenkins issued an injunction prohibiting King and other civil rights leaders from participating in or encouraging any civil disobedience. King decided to defy the court order, and on Good Friday, April 12, he, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and more than fifty other demonstrators were arrested. They were taken to the Birmingham City Jail, where King was placed in solitary confinement.

On April 12 a statement by eight white clergymen–a rabbi, a Catholic bishop, and six prominent Protestant leaders– appeared in the Birmingham News under the title “A Call for Unity.” They characterized the demonstrations as “unwise and untimely” and claimed that the protests were likely “incite to hatred and violence.” The authors praised the Birmingham media and police for the “calm manner” in which they handled the civil rights forces and urged blacks to withdraw their support from King's efforts. They implied that King should return to Atlanta and allow local residents to resolve their differences without outside interference.

King probably read the churchmen's declaration in a newspaper smuggled into his cell. Taylor Branch, author of Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63, credits Harvey Shapiro, an editor for the New York Times Magazine, for planting the idea that King write a letter from prison during the Albany campaign. That message never materialized, but now King realized the time was right. Almost immediately he began formulating a response. When King's lawyer, Clarence Jones, visited him on April 16, the jailed civil rights leader handed Jones the newspaper with his notes scribbled in the margins. S. Jonathan Bass, author of Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Clergymen, and the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” describes what happened next. The Reverend Wyatt T. Walker, SCLC executive director, deciphered King's “chicken scratch” handwriting and dictated to his secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey, who typed the first rough copy. Lawyers returned the draft to King, who continued writing on scraps of paper provided by a black jail trustee. When he was released from jail on April 20, the bulk of the letter was composed, but King, according to Bass, “continued writing, editing, and revising drafts several days after the date on the manuscript” (p. 135).

The SCLC sent the letter to national media in early May, but there was little immediate reaction. The New York Post printed excerpts in its May 19 edition. The American Friends Service Committee published the full text of the letter as a pamphlet on May 28. It subsequently appeared in Christian Century, the New Leader, Atlantic Monthly, and Ebony. A slightly revised version was included in King's 1964 book Why We Can't Wait.

About the Author Martin Luther King, Jr., was the preeminent leader of the modern civil rights movement. His philosophy of nonviolent direct action and inspirational oratory helped overthrow the Jim Crow system of racial segregation and win greater rights for African Americans.

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist ministers. He was educated at Morehouse College and Crozier Theological Seminary. He studied philosophy at Boston University, receiving his doctorate in 1955.

In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. They had four children. Also in 1953 he accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. After Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, King was persuaded to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, an organization formed to coordinate the 381-day boycott of city buses. King's successful leadership of the boycott and his application of Gandhian nonviolence to civil rights issues thrust him into national prominence.

King and other African American ministers formed the SCLC in 1957 to expand the struggle against racial segregation in the South. In 1962 King and the SCLC suffered a major defeat in Albany, Georgia, where months of demonstrations had failed to desegregate any public facilities. Mass protests in Birmingham produced a more successful outcome. In response to growing pressure for legislative action, President John F. Kennedy introduced a comprehensive civil rights

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bill. On August 28, 1963, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” Speech before 250,000 people assembled for the March on Washington. He was named Time magazine's “Man of the Year” for 1963 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King and the SCLC focused on voting rights in 1965. Selma, Alabama, was targeted for demonstrations because of white authorities’ determined opposition to African American voter registration. A vicious attack by Alabama state troopers on nonviolent protesters drew national attention. King then led marchers from Selma to Montgomery to press for national voting rights legislation. President Lyndon B. Johnson responded by sponsoring the Voting Rights Act, which became law that summer. In subsequent years King extended his crusade beyond the South, tackling slum housing in Chicago in 1966, declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War in 1967, and calling for a Poor People's Campaign for economic justice in 1968.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, while supporting a strike by sanitation workers. In 1983 Congress declared King's birthday a national holiday.

Explanation and Analysis of Documents Martin Luther King, Jr., was first and foremost a black Baptist preacher, raised in the traditions of African American spirituality. Although he wrote four books to help advance the cause of civil rights, it was through his oratory that he reached his widest audience. In speeches that combined biblical quotations with references to leading intellectuals, King embraced the role of a biblical prophet, speaking against the evils of his society and articulating a vision of a more just and democratic nation. His words live on as a monument to the power of his message.

Birmingham, Alabama, was reputed to be the most segregated city in the United States. During the 1950s a series of unsolved bombings directed at African Americans earned it the dubious nickname “Bombingham.” The police department was directed by Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, an outspoken segregationist. His failure to act against white thugs who attacked Freedom Riders arriving in Birmingham in May 1961 confirmed suspicions that Connor was in league with the Ku Klux Klan.

In January 1963 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference targeted Birmingham for its next desegregation campaign. During 1962 King had led a series of protests against segregation in Albany, Georgia, but had been unable to win any concessions from a stubborn city administration. He badly needed a victory to revive the movement's sagging morale. The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a fiery local civil rights leader, argued that despite its dangerous reputation, Birmingham was ripe for change; the short-tempered Connor could be provoked to retaliate against civil rights demonstrators, and that, in turn, would generate sympathy for the movement.

Moderate business leaders realized that Connor's heavyhanded tactics hurt their city's prospects for economic development and backed a drive to oust Connor from power. King delayed the start of demonstrations until Connor was defeated in a runoff election for mayor. Connor, however, refused to give up his office. Birmingham's divided white leadership was embroiled in controversy when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference launched its protest against segregated facilities in downtown stores. With the Easter shopping season in full swing, civil rights forces hoped to pressure business owners by hitting them in the pocketbook. Connor promptly arrested scores of sit-in demonstrators. King announced his intention to fill the jails with adherents to his nonviolent philosophy, just as Gandhi had done in India. When a city judge issued an injunction against further demonstrations, King marched in defiance of the order. Arrested on Good Friday, King refused bail and was locked in solitary confinement.

The same day King was jailed, a group of eight prominent clergymen published an appeal to Birmingham's African Americans urging them to abandon public protests. The white religious leaders argued that these demonstrations were unnecessarily disruptive and provocative. The city was making progress, they claimed, and protesters should allow the new government time to address their concerns. They suggested that local blacks should reject outside guidance and send King back to Atlanta. After reading their plea, King began writing an impassioned rebuttal. His letter was smuggled out of jail and published in pamphlet form a few weeks later. King's powerful defense of his confrontational tactics was soon recognized as one of the most influential documents of the civil rights movement.

King begins his epistle in a tone of Christian brotherhood. While confined in the city jail, he had read the clergymen's statement describing his campaign as “‘unwise and untimely.’” Although he rarely answered critics, he says that he has decided to respond to their statement because he considers them “men of genuine goodwill.” He first speaks to their objection to his outsider status. He maintains that he is present in Birmingham because injustice is there. King likens

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himself to early Christian evangelists, such as the apostle Paul, who faced persecution as they roamed the ancient world proclaiming the Gospel message. His mission, he says, requires him to answer a cry for assistance, no matter what its source. The “Macedonian call” refers to a biblical passage (Acts 16: 9–10) in which Paul responds to the vision of a Macedonian man calling for his aid. In the modern world, communities are linked in what King calls an “inescapable network of mutuality.” The presence of injustice is sufficient reason to bring him to Birmingham. King rejects the offensive label of “‘outside agitator.’” According to King, a person from another state should not be considered an outsider because all Americans are citizens of the same nation.

Next, King addresses the criticism of the demonstrations he led. He faults the statement's authors for “superficial” analysis because they failed to consider the underlying conditions giving rise to the protests. He concedes that protests are “unfortunate” but not for the same reasons set forth by his critics. He considers the inaction of Birmingham's white leaders deplorable because it leaves African Americans no option other than public dissent.

King poses the question, why are demonstrations necessary? Is negotiation not a better alternative? He agrees that negotiation would be preferable, but meaningful dialogue is not possible unless both parties are willing to face the issues. He readily admits that his direct action campaign aims to create a crisis. Rather than avoiding confrontation, he embraces it. Only by forcefully calling attention to their grievances can powerless people force community leaders to sit down and bargain. King asserts that tension is not something to be avoided; if it contributes to healing and progress, it can be constructive. Just as Socrates insisted that tension between opposing ideas was necessary for intellectual growth, King claims conflict is needed to move from prejudice to brotherhood. He frankly acknowledges that the goal of his campaign is to create crisis conditions that will “open the door to negotiation.”

Borrowing a line from the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, King states that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” For this reason, those in power will never consider a protest to be “‘well timed.’” At a moment when many white leaders were advising civil rights forces to not press so hard for change, King angrily rejects their appeal for patience. “‘Wait’” is a word hated by African Americans because it almost always means “‘Never.’” King refuses to go slowly in his quest for civil rights. Black people, he believes, have waited for more than three centuries to attain basic human rights and cannot delay any longer.

In the most remarkable passage of his letter, King recites a stinging litany of abuses contributing to African American dissatisfaction with the glacial rate of change. He cites the history of lynching, vicious police brutality, and pervasive poverty among the reasons for their impatience. In an instance that may be based on personal experience, he describes the plight of a black parent who must explain to his young daughter why she cannot go to the segregated amusement park she has seen advertised on television. In the same vein, he voices the complaint of a boy who asks why white people are so mean to black people. He recounts the humiliation of African American travelers who cannot find a motel that will accept them; the degrading names directed at black adults; the multitude of daily fears and slights experienced by African Americans. If his critics can appreciate the cumulative effect of these insults, then they may be able to understand the “legitimate and unavoidable impatience” felt by civil rights protesters.

King then raises an issue fundamental to his philosophy of civil disobedience–his willingness to break the law. He rhetorically asks how civil rights leaders can condemn southern whites for failing to obey the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision and, at the same time, advocate disobeying laws requiring segregation in public facilities in the South. There are two types of law, he answers, just and unjust. Here King introduces the concept of natural law articulated by Thomas Aquinas. A just law is one rooted in natural law; it affirms the dignity of human beings. An unjust law is not in harmony with natural law; it degrades and damages the human personality. By this logic, all segregation laws are unjust; therefore, they can be broken without moral blame.

The shortcomings of southern white moderates are a major disappointment for King. By blindly insisting on law and order without considering segregation's basic injustice, they have become an obstacle to progress. When moderates fault civil rights leaders for generating tension with their demonstrations, they fail to acknowledge the positive contributions of these protests. Direct action against segregation brings hidden conflicts to the surface where they can be addressed and resolved. King asserts that exposing injustice is healthy and a necessary precondition for creating a just social order. Too many moderates advocate gradualism, he says, believing that progress is inevitable; according to them, there is no need to push for change because it will come with the passage of time. King effectively refutes that notion. “Time is neutral,” he asserts; it can be used for good or evil. Too many white moderates had failed to speak against the racist policies of white politicians during the past decade. He condemns “the appalling silence of the good people.” Progress will come only through “the tireless efforts and persistent work” of dedicated people. He urges his readers to use time creatively and work

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to “make real the promise of democracy.”

The tepid response of white churches to the civil rights movement is another source of dismay to King. As a believer whose activism had been nurtured by his religious faith, he expected better. He cites his experience in Montgomery, where some white clergy actively opposed the bus boycott, while others feared to give open support. The same experience was being repeated in Birmingham. He admonishes white church leaders for not viewing the denial of African American civil rights as a burning moral issue. Some religious leaders urged compliance with court-ordered school desegregation because it was the law; King would prefer to hear them tell their congregations to support integration because it is morally right. He decries their “pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.”

Despite lack of backing from white churches, King expresses confidence that his movement ultimately will prevail because the quest for freedom is a fundamental American value. The experience of African Americans is inextricably linked with the history of the United States. Black people endured two centuries of slavery and another century of second-class citizenship and still press for equality. King believes that they will not be denied because the nation's heritage and the will of God are on their side. He concludes his letter by expressing the hope that he will be able to meet the authors of the statement on some future day when love and brotherhood will replace the prejudice and misunderstanding that currently separate them.

Audience Although the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was nominally addressed to the eight white clergymen who had publicly urged African Americans to curtail their Birmingham demonstrations, King had a much wider audience in mind; his letter was produced for national consumption. Specifically, his letter was intended to answer his critics, especially white liberals who questioned the timing of his decision to initiate sit-ins, pickets, and marches following the electoral defeat of Connor. More generally, King hoped to explain the religious and philosophical foundations of nonviolent, direct action to all who shared his Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Impact Few twentieth-century leaders could match Martin Luther King's far-reaching influence. As the most visible and articulate spokesperson of the modern civil rights movement, King led a crusade that fundamentally altered the legal and social status of African Americans. In little more than a decade, the country's system of legally sanctioned racial segregation was discredited and dismantled. Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act removed segregation barriers in restaurants, theaters, and hotels. After the Voting Rights Act became law the next year, black political participation increased dramatically, especially in the South, where hundreds of black candidates were elected to local, state, and national offices. African American students enrolled in schools and colleges that had previously been closed to them. Newly opened employment opportunities enabled many black families to enjoy greater economic security and enter the middle class. The success of the civil rights movement encouraged other minorities to press for equal rights. The women's liberation movement, the American Indian movement, the gay rights movement, the disability rights movement, and others all drew inspiration from King's leadership. Overseas, participants in popular struggles against repressive regimes in South Africa, Poland, and China sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” as they adopted King's techniques of nonviolent resistance.

King's leadership was not limited to racial issues. He realized that African Americans’ low standing in American society would not be elevated by the passage of civil rights laws alone. That is why he increasingly advocated programs to fight poverty among people of all races. He joined the antiwar movement for moral reasons but also because he saw military spending draining funds away from badly needed domestic spending. King's preeminent stature was equally the result of his powerful oratory and his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. His ability to deliver a ringing, inspirational message was honed by his immersion in the rich tradition of the black Baptist church. Unlike many of his clerical contemporaries, however, King was well versed in the leading intellectual currents of his day. His speeches combined familiar biblical references with concepts borrowed from prominent philosophers and theologians. King also buttressed his argument for equal rights with quotations from patriotic documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

His philosophy of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to government oppression was borrowed from Gandhi's Indian independence movement and based on the writings of the nineteenth-century American writer Henry David Thoreau. King's original contribution was the addition of a uniquely Christian perspective. He used Jesus’ admonitions to “turn the other cheek” and to “do good to those who hate you” to persuade his followers to remain nonviolent, even in the face of violent repression. King's use of religious justifications helped his followers claim the moral high ground in the

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contest for public support. He shrewdly realized that the main resource at the disposal of African American people was their ability to appeal to the conscience of the nation with disciplined, nonviolent protests.

King's final years were marked by his criticism of the pervasive poverty and economic inequality that characterized American society and his opposition to U.S. military operations in Vietnam. At the same time, his vision of racial integration and his emphasis on nonviolence were rejected by militant Black Power advocates. Only after his assassination was King recognized as the leading spokesman for the American ideals of justice and equality.

Time Line

1929 January 15 ■ Martin Luther King, Jr., is born in Atlanta, Georgia.

1954 October 31 ■ King is called to be pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955 December 1 ■ Rosa Parks is arrested for failing to give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery.

December 5 ■ King is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and assumes leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott.

1956 December 20

■ King's boycott leads to buses in Montgomery being integrated.

1957 February 14 ■ King founds the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

1961 December 15

■ King arrives in Albany, Georgia, to lead protests against segregated facilities.

19 3 April 12 ■ King is arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, and begins writing his letter from a Birmingham jail.

August 28 ■ King delivers his “I have a dream” speech at the March on Washington.

19 4 December 10

■ King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

19 5 March 21-25 ■ King leads the Selma-to-Montgomeiy march for voting rights.

19 7 April 4 ■ King speaks against the Vietnam War at New York's Riverside Church.

November 27

■ King announces plans for a “poor people's campaign” in 1968.

1968 April 4 ■ King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Essential Quotes

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed … . For years now I have heard the words ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’”

“Actually time itself is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively … . Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work 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.”

“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 twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;. then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

Questions for Further Study

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1. Discuss the logical formation of the arguments King employs in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Outline his points step by step and give his justification for them. How does he use examples from history, literature, philosophy, and American history? Of the painful experiences to which he alludes in the lengthy seventh paragraph, which do you think were King's own? Use evidence from this speech or other information about King to back up your position.

2. Compare and contrast King's “I have a dream” speech with the two addresses by Malcolm X included in this set: “Message to the Grass Roots” and “The Ballot or the Bullet” Speech. Use each man's actual words to set forth their relative positions and examine the many ways in which they disagreed about the proper approach to questions of racial justice in America as well those ways in which they agreed. For what qualities might each man have praised the other?

3. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King makes disparaging comparisons between the speed of racial progress in America compared with that of Africa and Asia, and in his speech against the Vietnam War four years later he lambastes the United States as the “greatest purveyor of violence” in the world. Were such criticisms fair? What did subsequent events show about the progress of racial and social reform in America relative to that in the then newly emergent third world nations King lauded in 1963? How did America's record of violence overseas and at home in the 1960s compare with that of the Soviet Union, China, and other Communist countries? What was the “world revolution” King references in his Vietnam speech, and were the aims of its leaders and supporters truly aligned with those of King and other civil rights leaders in the United States? In what ways might King have taken issue with third world nationalism and Socialism?

4. As remarkable a figure as King was, his views did not all originate with him but bore the strong imprint of other influences. Much has been made of the degree to which he reflected the nonviolent philosophies of Mohandas K. Gandhi and the social activism of the African American church, but this was far from the extent of his education. Discuss the influence on King of other thinkers such as his namesake, Martin Luther; the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, whose work King studied as a postgraduate student; and others, including twentieth-century philosophers and theologians. What might King have said about these influences, and for what particular aspects of his thought might he have credited each of them?

5. King, himself a Baptist minister who gained his greatest prominence as a political leader, did not live to see the battles over “separation of church and state” that began to take an increasingly prominent place in the U.S. political landscape from the 1970s onward. How would he have approached this controversy, given the fact that he was committed to a broad social movement encompassing numerous groups and faiths? What would he have seen as the limits for appropriate religious involvement in politics? Would he have viewed religious movements among people of color as having no greater or lesser right to a political role than white or multiracial churches?