Why We Can't Wait

This chapter is the revised text of King’s famous jailhouse letter, in which he responds to eight Alabama clergymen who accused the protestors of engaging in “‘unwise and untimely’” (85) action in Birmingham. King opens the letter by explaining that he is responding to their criticism because he believes them to be sincere people of “genuine goodwill” (85).

King first responds to the clergymen’s criticism by saying that he is an outsider. According to King, he is in Birmingham because the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights invited them. King then highlights the example of early Christians like the Apostle Paul, who preached far from home, to make the point that King’s Christian duty requires him to come to Birmingham because of the presence of injustice. Ultimately, “[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” according to King, so when it comes to fighting injustice, there is no such thing as an outsider in the U.S. (87).

The clergymen’s objection to the protests is unfortunate in King’s opinion because it fails to account for what led to the protests in the first place. The decision to protest in Birmingham is the result of a four-stage process King and his peers followed: collecting facts, negotiating, self-purifying, and engaging in direct action.