Letter from Birmingham City Jail and the Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax
Document 28-2 & Document 28-3
“Letter from Birmingham City Jail” & “The Civil Rights movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax”
Coy Swatzell
HIS 202 Document 28-2 comes from a letter, “Letter From Birmingham City Jail”, that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He was in jail because he had been arrested for participating in demonstrations. He directed this letter that he wrote from jail towards a group of white clergymen who criticized the Birmingham demonstrations. Document 28-3 comes from a speech, “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham and Hoax”, given by the governor of Alabama, George C. Wallace, on July 4, 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia. He gave the speech to express his hard-lined opposition to racial change. In Document 28-2, Marin Luther King Jr. calls out a group of white clergymen for their statement that called the present activities of demonstrations “unwise and untimely”. King felt the men were of genuine good will and their criticisms were sincerely set forth and he wanted to answer their statement in patient and reasonable terms. The white clergymen said argued Kings being in Birmingham as “outsiders coming in” and he wanted to defend his reason for being there. King was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state. The headquarters of the organization was in Atlanta, Georgia. He goes on to say that the reason I am in Birmingham is because injustice is here and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Birmingham is probably the most segregated city in the United States and has an ugly record of police brutality. The city of Birmingham’s treatment towards Negroes is unjust and unfair. There have been more unsolved violent crimes towards blacks in Birmingham then in any other city of the United States. He ask the clergymen why this cannot be settled with negotiation because that is clearly a better path then to as what is
“Letter from Birmingham City Jail” & “The Civil Rights movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax”
Coy Swatzell
HIS 202 Document 28-2 comes from a letter, “Letter From Birmingham City Jail”, that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He was in jail because he had been arrested for participating in demonstrations. He directed this letter that he wrote from jail towards a group of white clergymen who criticized the Birmingham demonstrations. Document 28-3 comes from a speech, “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham and Hoax”, given by the governor of Alabama, George C. Wallace, on July 4, 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia. He gave the speech to express his hard-lined opposition to racial change. In Document 28-2, Marin Luther King Jr. calls out a group of white clergymen for their statement that called the present activities of demonstrations “unwise and untimely”. King felt the men were of genuine good will and their criticisms were sincerely set forth and he wanted to answer their statement in patient and reasonable terms. The white clergymen said argued Kings being in Birmingham as “outsiders coming in” and he wanted to defend his reason for being there. King was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state. The headquarters of the organization was in Atlanta, Georgia. He goes on to say that the reason I am in Birmingham is because injustice is here and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Birmingham is probably the most segregated city in the United States and has an ugly record of police brutality. The city of Birmingham’s treatment towards Negroes is unjust and unfair. There have been more unsolved violent crimes towards blacks in Birmingham then in any other city of the United States. He ask the clergymen why this cannot be settled with negotiation because that is clearly a better path then to as what is
Cited: Wallace, George. “The Civil Rights movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax.” (1964): 28-3. Quoted in Michael P. Johnson’s, Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents. Vol. 2. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009. Luther King Jr., Martin. “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” (1964): 28-2. Quoted in Michael P. Johnson’s, Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents. Vol. 2. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009.