As we celebrate the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, we also celebrate the tough love that came from his teachings. One of the toughest lessons came in the form of Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. along with several other civil rights protestors were arrested after leading a demonstration designed to bring national attention to brutal southern racism and the effects of segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dr. King suffered his thirteenth arrest in the name of a calling to uplift Black people and unite all of God’s children. It was there, sitting in solitary, that King was given a newspaper that included an open letter, written by several local Christian and Jewish religious leaders. In this letter, religious leaders criticized King and the protestors, labeling them unwise and untimely outside agitators.
Dr. King’s response came in the form of the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” A message that still resonates to this very day. We invite you to sit with us today and read from Dr. King’s letter. We pray that it impacts you, forces you to shift a bit in your chair, wrestle with the lessons handed down from Jesus Christ, and most of all we hope that it inspires you.
His work lives on in all of us.
Please read Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail below.