A response to A Call for Unity, the statement by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his nonviolent methods.
From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote the "Letter from Birmingham Jail".
It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South who accused King of agitating local residents and not giving the incoming mayor a chance to make any changes.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote an open letter which became dubbed the Letter from Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963. He had been arrested during a peaceful protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. He wrote the letter in response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen a few days earlier, titled "A Call For Unity," which conceded that social injustices were taking place but expressed the belief that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts and not taken onto the streets. King wrote that "This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'" He put forth that direct actions were necessary to achieve true civil rights, and that not only is civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but also that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." King's letter was first published <span>as "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in the June 12, 1963 edition of The Christian century</span>
