King's Letter from Birmingham

Date: April 16, 1963 • Location: Rome, Italy

In response to an open letter written by white clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail in defence of the strategy of nonviolent resistance against racism.

"A Call for Unity" was an open letter published in The Birmingham [Alabama] News, on April 12, 1963, by eight local white clergymen in response to civil rights demonstrations taking place in the area at the time. In the letter, they took issue with events "directed and led in part by outsiders," and they urged activists to engage in local negotiations and to use the courts if rights were being denied, rather than to protest.