Letter From Birmingham City Jail - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, April 16, 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writing of his critically important "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail". It was written in 1963 as King sat in jail and solitary confinement, angry and struggling with establishment clergy who were questioning his involvement not only in civil disobedience but his involvement in social justice and the civil rights movement itself. An angry young man, an outside agitator, a black man who didn't really know his place were just some of the things his fellow clergy were calling him. They were questioning his actions and his leadership.

Struggles about nonviolence and social justice are always intensified when we face and see violence all around us. When we hear people spewing hatred for things and people they usually don't understand. It seems appropriate to take some time to reflect on Dr. King's letter of 50 years ago where he discusses violence and nonviolence, justice and injustice as well as people's attitudes about right and wrong.

I, along with other friends over the years, have found myself called an "outside agitator" and worse. Sometimes the name calling is done to embarrass. Sometimes it is done to discourage people from listening to what you have to say. In the worst cases it is done out of pure hatred for an individual and his or her ideas.

We are living in a time of more hatred and more name calling. It may be about gun violence and trying to control it. It may be about immigration or other countries or political beliefs.

Yesterday a terrible tragedy took place in Boston during that city's famous Marathon. That kind of violence always leads me back to reflections on nonviolence. Click Here to see Dr. King's letter.