The Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail

Abstract

T OWARD THE END of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr., was beset by intense criticism of his program of nonviolent direct action from both reactionary whites and newly vocal radical blacks. The reactionary complaint from well-meaning Negroes and whites had long been familiar to King: marches and sit-ins were counter-productive because they provoked violence; truly Christian Negroes would tolerate injustice because whites would ultimately develop sympathy for those who demonstrated patience. King always saw such procrastination was a disguise for either cowardice or velvet-gloved racism. He had felt early that true witness of a Christian life is projection of a social gospel.' The criticism most difficult to answer came from blacks who argued the non-adaptability of non-violent technique to urban, dynamic North which shapes America.2 Southern racism-provincial and defended by easily identified local leaders could be effectively challenged by marches, demonstrations, sit-ins. Northern racism was harder to locate; it was supported by widely diffused, sophisticated, vested interests who were rendered invulnerable by something Bull Connor did not have: real power. King, as though sensing this growing threat to his leadership, began to expand scope of his civil rights campaign to include opposition to war in Vietnam. He began to regard new Black Power as compatible with Christian ideals were foundation of his nonviolent campaign: Power, properly understood, is ability to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement demands of love and justice.3 But verdict of younger intellectuals and activists was clearly King's self-flagellating policy of nonviolence was no longer relevant to black movement.4 King's nonviolence played into hands of segregationists; he had been absorbed into mainstream of American life, losing his cutting-edge as a reformer by becoming virtually an institution: the award of a Nobel Prize to Martin Luther King and inflation of his image to of an international hero, bear witness to historical fact only Negro Americans allowed to attain national or international fame have been puppets and lackeys of white power structure.5 If Cleaver's judgment is accurate (and Malcolm X and Cleaver have