Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail

McCombs Management Professor James Fredrickson has been using Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in his MBA Art of Leadership class for many years. "It is very powerful and illustrates a lot of important leadership issues," Fredrickson said. "It's a wonderful piece of writing, the language is vivid, and it is a great example of the role language can play in leadership."

Several years ago, a friend suggested that instead of having the students read the MLK letter, perhaps a dramatic reading would be a great substitute. "It is one thing to read it, another to hear it spoken," Fredrickson said. A call to Lucien Douglas, associate professor of acting & directing at the College of Fine Arts, led him to Corey Jones, then an acting student pursuing his Master's of Fine Arts degree. Jones rehearsed and came into Fredrickson's class and did a dramatic reading of the letter. The students loved it.

The next step seemed logical. Fredrickson then decided to stage the reading for film to use in his class in later years. Another call to Douglas and Fredrickson had a director in Ya'Ke Smith, who had recently graduated with his Master's of Fine Arts degree from the film program, to go along with the actor Jones.

The following 54-minute movie is the result, with the old Georgetown, Texas, jail sitting in for Birmingham in 1963. It starts with the published statement by eight fellow clergymen that prompted King's response. The film was funded by Fredrickson's endowed professorship, the Tom E. Nelson, Jr. Regents Professorship, and the McCombs School's Department of Management.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• McCombs School of Business
• UT
• University of Texas
• MLK
• Dr. King
• Martin Luther King
• Birmingham
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• civil rights
• human rights
• African Americans
• University of Texas at Austin
• I have a dream

[thexbombshellxkell]

... 4:00 .... finally!

[rhuevyk]

The letter starts at 4:00

[Scubaguy310]

Do not blame human actions on God. God loved us enough in the beginning to give us the freedom of choice, so that we could choose to love Him (which is the only true form of love, forced love is not true love) or choose to reject Him. He then loved us enough to give His only son to be crucified so that we may be redeemed of our sins against Him. He truly is a God of love, and our finite minds can not begin to understand the depth of His infinite love.

[truthbetold459]

Although I am an skeptic of the idea in the existence of a one god only, or a supreme being as been the only creator of all humanity, I will admit that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a lot of sense in his Letter from Birmingham. But, what hurts me the most as a human being is the hypocrisy of all the Christian Moderates of the time. Furthermore, what has change? when the same white moderate has impose their ideas against emigrants of the world. Where is the god of LOVE you hypocrites.

[dschmidt040]

Great video!

[benjiross1]

@DrParmesan wait! i take back what I said about the belief thing. I thought you meant that you were an atheist. I didn't realize that the mmhmmmm was part of the quote. I'm sorry.

[benjiross1]

@DrParmesan i respect your choice of belief, but this is no place for jokes

[lovefamily33]

Good but soooo long..

[DrParmesan]

I laughed at 37:55. "3 men were crucified, mmhmmmm?"

[noozguy]

This is so powerful. Listen closely, not only to the artist's excellent interpretation of Dr. King's words, to the passion in his voice, but to how King's words, so masterfully constructed, may be applied to the problems we as a nation, that we as a people, face to this very day. Peace.

[Shukhratkamolov]

Excellent video.