Letter Birmingham Response to the Letter from Birmingham Jail

It is difficult to imagine being in the position Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in when he wrote this letter. Though it was far from the only time he was arrested during his campaigning for civil rights, the "Birmingham Campaign" that led to this arrest was one of the larger movements of civil disobedience that King helped to lead, and the weight that he must have felt he carried during his imprisonment is not something anyone can truly understand, I suspect. This weight and the impetus it must have given King makes the measured and restrained tone of this letter all the more remarkable -- there really isn't a trace of anger or aggression to be found anywhere in the letter. King manages to sound almost conciliatory in response to the several criticisms levied against him by others, even those...

The emotional content of the letter and the balance that King strikes between this insistence and his true and evident desire to find and expand common ground with his detractors is one of the most remarkable aspects of this letter, and indeed of King's writing and speeches generally. It is a testament both to his intelligence and his eloquence that he is so capable of finding the words to say exactly what he means, in no uncertain terms and without any wavering or equivocation, while still sounding so welcoming. The only real response that could be felt…