What Some Faith Leaders Are Saying Today About King’s Famous ‘Letter’

www.ncronline.org It’s been more than 60 years since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on scraps of paper, but faith leaders say his response to white clergy critics endures as a “road map” for those working on justice and equal rights. Recent events and exhibitions tied to its anniversary have revealed the ongoing interest in and relevance of King’s letter, in which the Civil Rights leader proclaimed: “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.” Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice held a virtual event in 2023 to mark 60 years since King penned the letter on April 16, 1963, after being jailed for a nonviolent demonstration on Good Friday in Birmingham. The letter was released publicly the next month and was included in his 1964 book “Why We Can’t Wait.” The Rev. Jim Wallis, director Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, noted how King wrote that the greatest “stumbling block” for freedom-seeking Black Americans was — rather than a Ku Klux Klan member — the “white moderate,...