Letter from Birmingham Jail
E2651
Letter from Birmingham Jail is a landmark 1963 open letter by Martin Luther King Jr. defending nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice and articulating the moral urgency of the civil rights movement.
Aliases (3)
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
civil rights document
→
essay → open letter → political text → |
| addresses | white clergymen in Birmingham → |
| argues | unjust laws are not true laws → |
| author | Martin Luther King Jr. → |
| cityWritten |
Birmingham, Alabama, United States
→
surface form: "Birmingham, Alabama"
|
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
→
surface form: "United States"
|
| criticizes |
the notion of "wait" for civil rights
→
white moderates → |
| dateWritten | 1963-04-16 → |
| defends |
civil disobedience
→
direct action → nonviolent protest → |
| discusses |
constructive nonviolent tension
→
difference between just and unjust laws → extremism for love and justice → role of the church in social justice → |
| famousQuote |
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
→
Letter from Birmingham Jail →
surface form: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Justice too long delayed is justice denied. → One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. → |
| includedIn | many college and university curricula → |
| influencedBy |
Christian theology
→
Gandhian nonviolence → Henry David Thoreau → St. Augustine → St. Thomas Aquinas → natural law tradition → |
| language | English → |
| medium | written on scraps of paper and newspaper margins → |
| movement |
American civil rights movement
→
surface form: "civil rights movement"
|
| placeWritten | Birmingham city jail → |
| primaryTheme |
critique of gradualism
→
critique of white moderates → interconnectedness of communities → moral responsibility to oppose injustice → nonviolent civil disobedience → racial justice → |
| reasonWritten |
to justify civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham
→
to respond to criticisms of being an outsider and extremist → |
| recognizedAs |
classic of political philosophy
→
landmark text of the American civil rights movement → |
| respondsTo | A Call for Unity → |
| targetAudience |
clergy
→
general American public → white moderates in the United States → |
| writtenDuring |
American civil rights movement
→
Birmingham campaign → |
| year | 1963 → |
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form: "Birmingham City Jail"
this entity surface form: ""Letter from Birmingham Jail""
this entity surface form: "Letter from Birmingham Jail 1963-04-16"
this entity surface form: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
this entity surface form: ""Letter from Birmingham Jail""