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    Letter from Birmingham Jail
    Letter from Birmingham Jail
    Letter from Birmingham Jail
    Audiobook52 minutes

    Letter from Birmingham Jail

    Written by Martin Luther King Jr.

    Narrated by Dion Graham

    5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    April 16th. The year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama has had a spring of non-violent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers. The organizers longed to create a non-violent tension so severe that the powers that be would be forced to address the rampant racism head on. Recently arrested was Martin Luther King, Jr.. It is there in that jail cell that he writes this letter; on the margins of a newspaper he pens this defense of non-violence against segregation. His accusers, though many, in this case were not the white racist leaders or retailers he protested against, but 8 black men who saw him as “other” and as too extreme. To them and to the world he defended the notion that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristianAudio.com
    Release dateApr 15, 2013
    ISBN9781610457491
    Letter from Birmingham Jail
    Author

    Martin Luther King Jr.

    Clayborne Carson is Director and Senior Editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project. A history professor at Stanford University, he is the author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (1981), and editor of Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998) and Malcolm X: The FBI File (1991).

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    Reviews for Letter from Birmingham Jail

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    • 5/5
      Such a powerful work that calls a nation to employ love to produce justice!
    • 5/5
      Thank you Dr King for staying strong. There are still so many lessons to to learn from your teachings!
    • 5/5
      It has been almost 60 years since Martin Luther King Jr.'s imprisonment in Birmingham Jail where he penned this letter. It is easily one of the greatest, revolutionary writings of all time. 60 years later and basically every word still rings true from the complicity of the white moderate who prioritize civility over liberation to organized religion being too tied to the status quo.

      Tonight, President Biden will address the nation before a crowd full of Black families who have lost their loved ones to police brutality and this statement is just as true it was in 1963:
      "It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation."

      Police abolition is necessary for the protection of our rights because the police exist for two reasons: to defend private property and the ruling class (see: uphold capitalism) and to impose violence on oppressed people (see: uphold white supremacy). As long as there is police in this country, they will murder Black people.
    • 5/5
      Short but very educational and worth the time to hear.
    • 5/5
      Awesome book great inspiration to fight for a cause that’s right!
    • 5/5
      I've read this a few times over the years but this is the first time I've listened to an audio version. The narrator, Dion Graham, is outstanding. His voice & delivery, without being imitative, are perfectly suited to reading MLK's words, making audiobook a better experience than print.
    • 5/5
      This is an amazing recording and piece of history well preserved. A must read for the youth of America today.
    • 5/5
      I can’t believe I went through 6 years of school and never was required to read this. Shame on us. A must read for any American, and anyone interested in the reasoning behind non-violent protest.
    • 5/5
      This is timeless in its importance and voice.
    • 5/5
      This letter is so important and still reads to be so true and so relevant. I was assigned this for school (as well as on civil disobedience which I will be reading next) though I have read it before. It's also especially relevant because yesterday I marched in the women's march in Atlanta. I live in the 5th district in Atlanta and John Lewis is my congressman (my district is doing just fine,by the way. Don't believe everything you read in a tweet). He spoke at the march yesterday and told all of us in the crowd to not let anyone turn us around. It is always important to be reminded that the time is always right to stand up against injustice. Martin Luther King Jr understood this better than anyone and we can all wish to be half the person he was. His words still bring inspiration and hope. When you're fighting it can often feel you're fighting alone but if you're fighting for what's right someone will always be standing right there with you
    • 5/5
      Every bit as relevant today as it was then. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to read this--it is *so* good.

      This is available on Hoopla. Dion Graham's cadence does justice to the intonation of Dr. King.
    • 5/5
      Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thoughtfully replies to feeling clergymen who criticized his protests in Birmingham that had landed him in jail, and he sets forth his argument for action through nonviolent protest. Though closing in at only 35 pages, I came away thinking I should turn around and reread it to get the full impact.
    • 5/5
      “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Martin Luther King is in jail for participating in civil rights demonstrations. He writes to some white clergymen who had urged him to drop his campaign of nonviolent resistance. Kings response might lack the intense fervor of his public speeches, but it is still a powerful statement of the need for change - a change in the perception that all will end well if we just let the courts and government do its job. What if the laws in itself is unjust? And how do you know if a law is unjust? How are you going to fight against it? What means can you do it with?King writes lucidly and his firm Christian conviction grounded in the Bible and it’s teaching on social justice is clearly the basis for his arguments.“The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”
    • 4/5
      - audiobook - While in jail for non-violent protesting in 1963, Dr. King wrote an open letter to his detractors (not the completely unreasonable ones, of course), directly addressing many of their complaints such as "segregation creates community which is good for black people", "you're causing friction which can lead to violence", "non-violent protest isn't sufficient", etc.While I am very familiar with the contents of the letter, I had never read or heard the whole thing in its entirety. It was a lot less formal than I expected it to be. As opposed to his famous speeches the intent of this letter was clearly to inform, not necessarily to evoke emotions. And I do indeed feel better informed about his situation after listening, which is impressive at a hindsight of over 50 years. It is a very nice short listen (a little under an hour), but be careful if you listen around bedtime because the narrator's voice is very soothing.
    • 5/5
      So passionate and eloquent! A great way to get a glimpse into a huge part of modern history. Listening to it rather than reading it added immensely to the power behind Dr. King's words.
    • 4/5
      A letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. while incarcerated during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s.
    • 5/5
      This long letter is the most important written document of the Civil Rights Era (tied with the Civil Rights Act of '68 itself). Direct action, the connections of all American communities, the lie of 'waiting' for justice to happen.

      Required reading. The cause for justice continues.
    • 5/5
      The most important reading in American history as far as I'm concerned. The explanation of the word "just" from "legal" is worth a mountain of gold and should be required comprehension to be a member of the government.