Letter from Birmingham Jail - wikipedia Letter from Birmingham Jail Recreation of Martin Luther King 's cell in Birmingham Jail at the National Civil Rights Museum The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an `` outsider, '' King writes, `` Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere ''. The letter, written during the 1963 Birmingham campaign, was widely published, and became an important text for the American Civil Rights Movement. Contents 1 Background 2 Summary and themes 3 Publication 4 Notes 5 References 5.1 Footnotes 5.2 Bibliography 6 Further reading 7 External links Background The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit - ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The nonviolent campaign was coordinated by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights ( ACMHR ) and King 's Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ). On April 10, Circuit Judge W.A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against `` parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing. '' Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling. On April 12, King was roughly arrested with SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy, ACMHR and SCLC official Fred Shuttlesworth and other marchers, while thousands of African Americans dressed for Good Friday looked on. King was met with unusually harsh conditions in the Birmingham jail. An ally smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained A Call for Unity, a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods. The letter provoked King, and he began to write a response on the newspaper itself. King writes in Why We Ca n't Wait : `` Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me. '' Summary and themes The letter responded to several criticisms made by the `` A Call for Unity '' clergymen, who agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets. As a minister, King responded to these criticisms on religious grounds. As an activist challenging an entrenched social system, he argued on legal, political, and historical grounds. As an African American, he spoke of the country 's oppression of black people, including himself. As an orator, he used many persuasive techniques to reach the hearts and minds of his audience. Altogether, King 's letter was a powerful defense of the motivations, tactics, and goals of the Birmingham campaign and the Civil Rights Movement more generally. King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were `` outsiders '' causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. To this, King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South. `` I was invited '' by our Birmingham affiliate `` because injustice is here '', in what is probably the most racially divided city in the country, with its brutal police, unjust courts, and many `` unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches. '' Referring to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated, King wrote, `` 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... Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. '' King also warned that if white people successfully rejected his nonviolent activists as rabble - rousing outside agitators, this could encourage millions of African Americans to `` seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare. '' The clergymen also disapproved of tensions created by public actions such as sit - ins and marches. To this, King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create `` constructive '' tension. This tension was intended to compel meaningful negotiation with the white power structure, without which true civil rights could never be achieved. Citing previous failed negotiations, King wrote that the black community was left with `` no alternative. '' `` We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor ; it must be demanded by the oppressed. '' The clergymen also disapproved of the timing of public actions. In response, King said that recent decisions by the SCLC to delay its efforts for tactical reasons showed they were behaving responsibly. He also referred to the broader scope of history, when `` ' Wait ' has almost always meant ' Never. ' '' Declaring that African Americans had waited for these God - given and constitutional rights long enough, King quoted Chief Justice Earl Warren, who said in 1958 that `` justice too long delayed is justice denied. '' Listing numerous ongoing injustices toward black people, including himself, King said, `` Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ' Wait. ' '' Along similar lines, King also lamented the `` myth concerning time, '' by which white moderates assumed that progress toward equal rights was inevitable, so assertive activism was unnecessary. King called it a `` tragic misconception of time '' to assume that its mere passage `` will inevitably cure all ills. '' Progress takes time as well as the `` tireless efforts '' of dedicated people of good will. Against the clergymen 's assertion that demonstrations could be illegal, King argued that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but it was necessary and even patriotic. `` I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. '' King stated that an unjust law was a law that degraded a human personality. Citing Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich -- and examples from the past and present -- King described what makes laws just or unjust. For example, `` A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. '' In terms of obedience to the law, King stated that citizens have `` not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws, '' and at the same time `` to disobey unjust laws. '' King stated that it is not morally wrong to disobey a law that pertains to one group of people differently than another. Alabama has used `` all sorts of devious methods '' to deny its black citizens their right to vote and thus preserve its unjust laws and broader system of white supremacy. Segregation laws are immoral and 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. '' Even some just laws, such as permit requirements for public marches, are unjust when used to uphold an unjust system. King addressed the accusation that the Civil Rights Movement was `` extreme '', first disputing the label but then accepting it. Compared to other movements at the time, King finds himself as a moderate. However, in his devotion to his cause, King refers to himself as an extremist. Jesus and other great reformers were extremists : `` So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love ? '' King 's discussion of extremism implicitly responded to numerous `` moderate '' objections to the ongoing movement, such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower 's claim that he could not meet with civil rights leaders because doing so would require him to meet with the Ku Klux Klan. King expressed general frustration with both white moderates and certain `` opposing forces in the Negro community. '' He wrote that white moderates, including clergymen, posed a challenge comparable to that of white supremacists, in the sense that, `` 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. '' King asserted that the white church needed to take a principled stand or risk being `` dismissed as an irrelevant social club. '' Regarding the black community, King wrote that we need not follow `` the ' do - nothingism ' of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. '' In closing the letter, King criticized the clergy 's praise of the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. Recent public displays of nonviolence by the police were in stark contrast to their typical treatment of black people, and, as public relations, helped `` to preserve the evil system of segregation. '' Not only is it wrong to use immoral means to achieve moral ends, but also `` to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. '' Instead of the police, King praised the nonviolent demonstrators in Birmingham, `` for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. '' Publication King promotes Why We Ca n't Wait King wrote the letter on the margins of a newspaper, which was the only paper available to him, and then gave bits and pieces of the letter to his lawyers to take back to movement headquarters, where the pastor Wyatt Tee Walker and his secretary Willie Pearl Mackey began compiling and editing the literary jigsaw puzzle. An editor at The New York Times Magazine, Harvey Shapiro, asked King to write his letter for publication in the magazine, but the Times chose not to publish it. Extensive excerpts from the letter were published, without King 's consent, on May 19, 1963, in the New York Post Sunday Magazine. The letter was first published as `` Letter from Birmingham Jail '' in the June 1963 issue of Liberation, the June 12, 1963, edition of The Christian Century, and in the June 24, 1963, issue of The New Leader. The letter gained more popularity as summer went on, and was reprinted in the July Atlantic Monthly as `` The Negro Is Your Brother ''. King included a version of the full text in his 1964 book Why We Ca n't Wait. The essay was highly anthologized, and was reprinted 50 times in 325 editions of 58 readers published between 1964 and 1996 that were intended for use in college - level composition courses. Notes Jump up ^ In a footnote introducing this chapter of the book, King wrote, `` Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author 's prerogative of polishing it. '' References Footnotes Jump up ^ `` Negroes To Defy Ban ''. The Tuscaloosa News. 145 ( 101 ). April 11, 1963. p. 21. Retrieved October 12, 2017. ^ Jump up to : Rieder 2013, ch. `` Meet Me in Galilee ''. Jump up ^ Rieder 2013, ch. `` Meet Me in Galilee '' : `` King was placed alone in a dark cell, with no mattress, and denied a phone call. Was Connor 's aim, as some thought, to break him ? '' ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 64. Jump up ^ King 1964, pp. 65 -- 66. ^ Jump up to : King, Martin Luther. `` Letter from a Birmingham Jail ''. Retrieved May 13, 2011. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 76. ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 65. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 68. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 69. ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 74. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 72. ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 71. Jump up ^ King 1964, pp. 70 -- 71. Jump up ^ `` `` Letter from Birmingham Jail '' ( 1963 ) ``, The King Center, accessed October 27, 2012. Jump up ^ McCarthy 2010, p. 16. ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 75. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 73. ^ Jump up to : King 1964, p. 80. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 82. Jump up ^ King 1964, p. 83. Jump up ^ Wyatt Walker interview by Andrew Manis at New Caanan Baptist Church, New York City, April 20, 1989, p. 24. Transcription held at Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, Alabama. Jump up ^ Fox, Margalit ( January 7, 2013 ). `` Harvey Shapiro, Poet and Editor, Dies at 88 ''. The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2017. Jump up ^ Bass 2001, p. 140. Jump up ^ King, Martin Luther, Jr. ( 1963 ). `` Letter from Birmingham Jail ''. Liberation : An Independent Monthly. Vol. 8 no. 4. pp. 10 -- 16, 23. ISSN 0024 - 189X. Jump up ^ Reprinted in Reporting Civil Rights, Part One - ( pp. 777 -- 794 ) - American Journalism 1941 - 1963. The Library of America Jump up ^ Rieder 2013, ch. `` Free at Last ? ''. Jump up ^ Bloom 1999. Bibliography Bass, S. Jonathan ( 2001 ). Blessed Are the Peacemakers : Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the `` Letter from Birmingham Jail ''. Baton Rouge, Louisiana : Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8071 - 2655 - 4. Bloom, Lynn Z. ( 1999 ). `` The Essay Canon '' ( PDF ). College English. 61 ( 4 ) : 401 -- 430. doi : 10.2307 / 378920. ISSN 0010 - 0994. Retrieved January 18, 2012. Fulkerson, Richard P. ( 1979 ). `` The Public Letter as a Rhetorical Form : Structure, Logic, and Style in King 's ' Letter from Birmingham Jail ' ''. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 65 ( 2 ) : 121 -- 136. doi : 10.1080 / 00335637909383465. Gilbreath, Edward ( 2013 ). Birmingham Revolution : Martin Luther King Jr. 's Epic Challenge to the Church. Downers Grove, Illinois : InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8308 - 3769 - 4. King, Martin Luther, Jr. ( 1964 ). Why We Ca n't Wait. New York : Signet Classic ( published 2000 ). ISBN 978 - 0 - 451 - 52753 - 0. McCarthy, Anna ( 2010 ). The Citizen Machine : Governing by Television in 1950s America. New York : The New Press. ISBN 978 - 1 - 59558 - 498 - 4. Oppenheimer, David Benjamin ( 1993 ). `` Martin Luther King, Walker v. City of Birmingham, and the Letter from Birmingham Jail '' ( PDF ). U.C. Davis Law Review. 26 ( 4 ) : 791 -- 833. ISSN 0197 - 4564. Retrieved October 12, 2017. Rieder, Jonathan ( 2013 ). Gospel of Freedom : Martin Luther King, Jr. 's Letter From Birmingham Jail. New York : Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 978 - 1 - 62040 - 058 - 6. Snow, Malinda ( 1985 ). `` Martin Luther King 's ' Letter from Birmingham Jail ' as Pauline Epistle ''. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 71 ( 3 ) : 318 -- 334. doi : 10.1080 / 00335638509383739. ISSN 1479 - 5779. Further reading Bass, S. Jonathan ( 2014 ). `` Letter from Birmingham Jail ''. Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Retrieved October 12, 2017. Carpenter, C.C.J. ; Durick, Joseph Aloysius ; Grafman, Milton L. ; Hardin, Paul ; Harmon, Nolan Bailey ; Murray, George M. ; Ramage, Edward V. ; Stallings, Earl ( 1963 ). Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen ( PDF ). Retrieved October 12, 2017 -- via Quia. King, Martin Luther, Jr. ( 1963 ). Letter from Birmingham Jail ( PDF ). Stanford, California : The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Retrieved October 12, 2017. `` Letter from Birmingham Jail ''. Bhamwiki. 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017. `` Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nonviolent Resistance ''. EDSITEment !. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved October 12, 2017. Walker v. Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307 ( 1967 ). External links Quotations related to Letter from Birmingham Jail at Wikiquote Letter Birmingham Jail A Reading of the Letter from Birmingham Jail on YouTube, from The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity hide Martin Luther King Jr. hide Speeches, movements, and protests Speeches `` Give Us the Ballot '' ( 1957 ) `` I Have a Dream '' ( 1963 ) `` How Long, Not Long '' ( 1965 ) `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' ( 1967 ) `` I 've Been to the Mountaintop '' ( 1968 ) Writings Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story ( 1958 ) The Measure of a Man ( 1959 ) `` What Is Man ? '' `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Strength to Love ( 1963 ) Letter from Birmingham Jail ( 1963 ) Why We Ca n't Wait ( 1964 ) Conscience for Change ( 1967 ) Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community ? ( 1967 ) Movements and protests Montgomery bus boycott ( 1955 -- 1956 ) Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom ( 1957 ) Albany Movement ( 1961 -- 1962 ) Birmingham campaign ( 1963 ) March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ( 1963 ) St. Augustine movement ( 1963 -- 1964 ) Selma to Montgomery marches ( 1965 ) Chicago Freedom Movement ( 1966 ) Mississippi March Against Fear ( 1966 ) Anti-Vietnam War movement ( 1967 ) Memphis sanitation strike ( 1968 ) Poor People 's Campaign ( 1968 ) People Family Coretta Scott King ( wife ) Yolanda King ( daughter ) Martin Luther King III ( son ) Dexter Scott King ( son ) Bernice King ( daughter ) Martin Luther King Sr. ( father ) Alberta Williams King ( mother ) Christine King Farris ( sister ) A.D. King ( brother ) Alveda King ( niece ) Other leaders Ralph Abernathy ( mentor and friend ) Ella Baker ( colleague ) James Bevel ( strategist / colleague ) Dorothy Cotton ( colleague ) Jesse Jackson ( protégé ) Bernard Lafayette ( colleague ) James Lawson ( colleague ) John Lewis ( colleague ) Joseph Lowery ( colleague ) Benjamin Mays ( mentor ) Diane Nash ( colleague ) James Orange ( colleague ) Bayard Rustin ( advisor ) Fred Shuttlesworth ( colleague ) C.T. Vivian ( colleague ) Wyatt Walker ( colleague ) Hosea Williams ( colleague ) Andrew Young ( colleague ) Assassination James Earl Ray Lorraine Motel ( now National Civil Rights Museum ) Funeral MLK Records Act Riots Loyd Jowers trial United States House Select Committee on Assassinations Media Film King : A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis ( 1970 documentary ) Our Friend, Martin ( 1999 animated ) Boycott ( 2001 film ) The Witness : From the Balcony of Room 306 ( 2008 documentary ) Alpha Man : The Brotherhood of MLK ( 2011 documentary ) Selma ( 2014 film ) All the Way ( 2016 film ) Television King ( 1978 miniseries ) `` The First Store '' ( The Jeffersons episode, 1980 ) `` Great X-Pectations '' ( A Different World episode, 1993 ) `` The Promised Land '' ( New York Undercover episode, 1997 ) `` Return of the King '' ( The Boondocks episode, 2006 ) Plays The Meeting ( 1987 ) The Mountaintop ( 2009 ) I Dream ( 2010 ) All the Way ( 2012 ) Illustrated Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story ( 1957 comic book ) Music `` Abraham, Martin and John '' ( Dion ) `` March ! For Martin Luther King '' ( John Fahey ) `` Martin Luther King 's Dream '' ( Strawbs ) `` Happy Birthday '' ( Stevie Wonder ) `` Pride ( In the Name of Love ) '' ( U2 ) `` MLK '' ( U2 ) `` King Holiday '' ( King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew ) `` By The Time I Get To Arizona '' ( Public Enemy ) `` Shed a Little Light '' ( James Taylor ) `` Up to the Mountain '' ( Patti Griffin ) `` Never Alone Martin '' ( Jason Upton ) `` Symphony Of Brotherhood '' ( Miri Ben - Ari ) Joseph Schwantner : New Morning for the World ; Nicolas Flagello : The Passion of Martin Luther King ( 1995 album ) `` A Dream '' ( Common featuring Will.i.am ) `` Glory '' ( Common and John Legend ) Related topics Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial National Historical Park King Center for Nonviolent Social Change Dexter Avenue Baptist Church National Civil Rights Museum Authorship issues Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity Season for Nonviolence U.S. Capitol Rotunda sculpture Oval Office bust Homage to King sculpture, Atlanta Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sculpture, Houston Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco Landmark for Peace Memorial, Indianapolis Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. statue, Milwaukee The Dream sculpture, Portland, Oregon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library Memorials to Martin Luther King Jr. Eponymous streets America in the King Years Civil rights movement in popular culture Lee -- Jackson -- King Day Martin Luther King High School ( disambiguation ) Lycée Martin Luther King ( disambiguation ) Civil rights movement Notable events ( timeline ) Prior to 1954 Lynching in the United States Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton White America, Inc. Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now, segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long, Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. 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Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Mary McLeod Bethune Related Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. 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Question: what is the argument in letter from birmingham jail
Answer: the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism