 We will be reading for you today excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail, dated April 16, 1963. My dear fellow clergyman, While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across a recent statement calling my present activities unwise in our time. Suddenly I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I start to answer all the criticism that cross my desk, my secretaries will have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day. And I will have no time for constructive work, but since I feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and that your criticism are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. Several months ago, the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program. We readily consented. And when the hour came, we lived up to our promise. So I alone with several members of my staff am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. And justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inscapable network of mutality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial, outsider, agitator idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within the bonds. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressive. It must be demanded by the oppressive. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well-time. In the view of those who have not suffered underly from the disease of segregation for years now, I have heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every negro with personal familiarity. This wait has almost always made never. We must come to see with one of our distinguished jurors that justice too long delay is just as denied. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself. And that is what has happened. Something to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of the birthright of freedom. And something without has reminded him that it can be gained. One should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continue to think about the matter, I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus in the streets for love? Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Before closing, I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled my me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping order and preventing violence. I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force, if you have seen it start sinking their teeth into unarmed nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commended the policemen, if you were to observe the ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in city jail. If you were to watch them push and curse all Negro men and young Negro girls. If you were to see them slap and kick all Negro men and young boys. If you were to observe them as they did on two occasions refused to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department. I wish you had commended the Negro sit-in and the demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of a great provocation. Never before have I written so long a letter. I am afraid it's too much long to take your precious time. I can assure that it would have been much shorter if I had written from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think long thoughts, and pray long prayers. If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the before of misunderstanding will be lifted from our field-drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their stimulating beauty. Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you.