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Letter from Birmingham Jail

A Message for the Nation

MLK and other leaders of the Birmingham Campaign were arrested and thrown in the notorious Birmingham Jail. There, MLK wrote his famous letter, which laid the Biblical and philosophical foundations for civil disobedience, non-violent activism, and the civil rights movement.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 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.” 

Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.

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