Birmingham, Alabama was the most furiously racist city in the south. In 1963, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a direct action campaign that included a series of mass meetings, lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall and boycotts at downtown merchants. The campaign was broadcast nationally after the City Commissioner violently dispersed the crowds with police dogs. More protestors joined the cause and actions expanded to “kneel-ins” at churches, sit-ins at the library, and a march on the county building to register voters.
Hundreds were arrested and the money for cash bonds became depleted. The Birmingham city government obtained a circuit court injunction against any further protest. King’s friend and fellow activist, Ralph Abernathy, knew they couldn’t agree with the injunction. They debated whether or not to seek arrest for publicity, as there was no guarantee that the funds could be raised for their release. King decided to keep the pressure on and was arrested on April 12, Good Friday. He was put in solitary confinement for 11 days, where he penned the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” on the margins of the Birmingham News. King wrote the letter in reaction to a published statement by 8 white local clergymen that called him an extremist. The letter was first seen nationally on May 19, 1963. Since then it has been printed thousands of times and is considered the most important protest document of the civil rights era.