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In this letter, Martin King Jr. sought to address the criticisms and misconceptions directed
to him by individuals who were the eight clergy men and who were expected to have known better.
He also aimed that the contents of his letter would serve as a compelling defense of the tactics he
endorsed in to affect change, which he simply referred to as justifying tactics of non-violent civil
disobedience. He also addressed against racial injustice in Birmingham and claimed if he was there
then it was because there existed injustice practices in the location. He also campaigned against
social and legal inequality among both black and white people. According to him, injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
The purpose of the letter was to find out if injustice existed. In his views, there are steps
towards attaining justice which include; negotiations, self-purification and direct action which
creates a situation and opens ways to negotiations. In his letter, he quotes political and religious
philosophers to justify charges of impatience against him. He also quotes Bible verses to justify
his actions, and that’s why he is disappointed with the clergy men as he expects them to understand
his actions the above was included in his article, ‘Why we can’t wait’ and was released in 1964
and in addition there was a landmark Civil Rights Act signed in to the law by President Lyndon
Johnson.
King achieved the following through his letter from prison: the end of legal segregation of
African-American citizens in the United States, the creation of a civil rights act of 1964, voting
rights in 1965, a famous speech during a march on Washington called ‘I have a dream.’ Among
personal achievements included, Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, appointed to be the president of
Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. The letter has been included in the curriculum
in American schools, contains fifty published anthologies and has been translated into forty
