<P> The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr . The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism . It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts . Responding to being referred to as an "outsider," King writes, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". </P> <P> The letter, written during the 1963 Birmingham campaign, was widely published, and became an important text for the American Civil Rights Movement . </P> <P> The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit - ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama . The nonviolent campaign was coordinated by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). On April 10, Circuit Judge W.A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing ." Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling . On April 12, King was roughly arrested with SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy, ACMHR and SCLC official Fred Shuttlesworth and other marchers, while thousands of African Americans dressed for Good Friday looked on . </P>

Letter from birmingham jail who was it written to