<P> King was met with unusually harsh conditions in the Birmingham jail . An ally smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained "A Call for Unity": a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods . The letter provoked King, and he began to write a response on the newspaper itself . King writes in Why We Can't Wait: "Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me ." </P> <P> The letter responded to several criticisms made by the "A Call for Unity" clergymen, who agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets . As a minister, King responded to these criticisms on religious grounds . As an activist challenging an entrenched social system, he argued on legal, political, and historical grounds . As an African American, he spoke of the country's oppression of black people, including himself . As an orator, he used many persuasive techniques to reach the hearts and minds of his audience . Altogether, King's letter was a powerful defense of the motivations, tactics, and goals of the Birmingham campaign and the Civil Rights Movement more generally . </P> <P> King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were "outsiders" causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham . To this, King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South . "I was invited" by our Birmingham affiliate "because injustice is here", in what is probably the most racially divided city in the country, with its brutal police, unjust courts, and many "unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches ." Referring to his belief that all communities and states were interrelated, King wrote, "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...Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds ." King also warned that if white people successfully rejected his nonviolent activists as rabble - rousing outside agitators, this could encourage millions of African Americans to "seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare ." </P> <P> The clergymen also disapproved of tensions created by public actions such as sit - ins and marches . To this, King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create "constructive" tension . This tension was intended to compel meaningful negotiation with the white power structure, without which true civil rights could never be achieved . Citing previous failed negotiations, King wrote that the black community was left with "no alternative ." "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed ." </P>

Summary of martin luther king letter from birmingham jail