Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Letter From Birmingham Jail - Episode 2 - There Are Just And There Are Unjust Laws

How To Love Lit Podcast

Martin Luther King Jr. - Letter From Birmingham Jail - Episode 2 - There Are Just And There Are Unjust Laws

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.

I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second week discussing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the letter that some consider today to be one of the most significant political documents to emerge from the American continent in the last 300 years, ranking with the founding documents, the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. Last week, we spoke a little, although very briefly, about Dr. King’s growing up years. We focused on his rise to political prominence through his political activism in Montgomery with the MIA and Rosa Parks as they led a community to boycott public bussing system for 381 days protesting the unfair bussing practices in Montgomery. These efforts resulted in legislation that would begin the process of unraveling a 100 years of Jim Crow laws across, not just Birmingham, but the entire South.

We also discussed Project C, C, btw, stands for Confrontation. Project C was the name given to the program that was designed to combine economic pressure with large scale direct action protest in order to undermine the very rigid system of segregation in place in the Southern city of Birmingham, Alabama. The project was multi-faceted and by that I mean, it had various moving parts. It consisted of strategic sit-ins, mass meetings, economic boycotts, and of course “parading” primarily without a permit because no permits would be given.

Yes, and one significant component of this project was planned for Good Friday, April 12 1963. It would be on this auspicious day that two political and spiritual leaders, Reverend Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would step out in faith in front of the Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Church to march down those prohibited streets. And, leading by example, proving that they would never ask anyone to do something they would not do themselves, they walked into what they knew would be a guaranteed confrontation with Bull Connor’s tightly controlled police force. As they marched, they were met by a police barricade, so they changed directions and marched a different way; however, it wasn’t long until they got to a second barricade. At this one, Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Conner’s clear orders could be heard and I quote, “Stop them…Don’t let them go any further!” They were arrested, and let me add, this was not the first time these two were arrested, nor would it be the last. Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy, according to Abernathy’s own words were closer than blood brothers. There was a deep trust between these two men. If you remember, they had been leaning on each other since those early days in Montgomery, Alabama where Abernathy was pastor of Montgomery’s First Baptist Church. This support would continue even after Dr. King’s assassination where Abernathy would follow through with the support of Memphis’ sanitation workers that had brought Dr. King to Memphis on the day he was murdered. Abernathy and King eventually would be jailed together a total of 17 times. Both they and their families would be targets of multiple assassination attempts.

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