My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail,
I came across your recent statement calling my present
activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer
criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the
criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little
time for anything other than such correspondence in the course
of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But
since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your
criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your
statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in
Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which
argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of
serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, an organization operating in every southern state,
with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five
affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we
share staff, educational and financial resources with our
affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham
asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action
program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and
when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with
several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here.
I am here because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because
injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century
B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord"
far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the
Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel
of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so
am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home
town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian
call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness
of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta
and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
