Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Remembering Birmingham: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to America--50 Years Later
    Unavailable
    Remembering Birmingham: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to America--50 Years Later
    Unavailable
    Remembering Birmingham: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to America--50 Years Later
    Ebook48 pages28 minutes

    Remembering Birmingham: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to America--50 Years Later

    By Edward Gilbreath

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    From Chapter 1, "As Birmingham Goes": It all happened fifty years ago in Birmingham, a place described by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as "the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States." A city where the libraries were not only segregated, but books containing photographs of black rabbits and white rabbits together in the same space were banned from their shelves. A city where, according to one famous report, "every medium of mutual interest, every reasoned approach, every inch of middle ground has been fragmented by the emotional dynamite of racism." A city where bullets, bombs and burning crosses served as constant deterrents to blacks who aspired to anything greater than their assigned station of disparity. A city where vigilante mobs in white hoods collaborated with the police to reinforce the social status quo. There, in April 1963, King and his movement of nonviolent protesters staged a campaign that would transform America. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a wiry and fiery Baptist preacher, had earned a reputation as the city's most fearless and outspoken fighter for human rights. It was Shuttlesworth who beseeched King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference deputies to descend on Birmingham and help the city's black community confront segregation "with our bodies and souls." He told them, "Birmingham is where it's at, gentlemen. I assure you, if you come to Birmingham, we will not only gain prestige but really shake the country." Shuttlesworth believed that "as Birmingham goes, so goes the nation." And Dr. King agreed. On April 12, 1963, King was arrested for demonstrating on the streets of Birmingham. The next day, while locked up, he spotted this headline on page two of the Birmingham News: "WHITE CLERGYMEN URGE LOCAL NEGROES TO WITHDRAW FROM DEMONSTRATIONS." Below it was a joint op-ed from a group of prominent, socially moderate Birmingham ministers. The group—comprised of six Protestant ministers, a Catholic bishop and a Jewish rabbi—was supportive of civil rights for Negroes but critical of Dr. King's "extreme" protest methods which the clergymen felt would lead to civil unrest and unnecessary violence. In their public statement, they alluded to King as an "outsider" and criticized the movement for "unwise and untimely" demonstrations. "When rights are consistently denied," they wrote, "a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets." And that prompted a letter of response from Dr. King. In this short ebook, journalist Ed Gilbreath tells the story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," a work that still calls us to accountability 50 years after it was first written. Gilbreath writes, "From time to time, prophetic Christian voices rise in timbre to challenge our nation's 'original sin.' Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice and historic efforts as the Moses of America's civil rights movement stand out as perhaps the most significant instance of a modern Christian leader acting in a prophetic role to instigate social change." Discover for yourself the significance of King's masterful letter—for his day and for today—and watch for Ed Gilbreath's full-length book, Birmingham Revolution, in November 2013.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIVP Books
    Release dateMar 4, 2013
    ISBN9780830866632
    Unavailable
    Remembering Birmingham: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to America--50 Years Later
    Author

    Edward Gilbreath

    Edward Gilbreath is director of editorial for Urban Ministries, Inc., and an editor at large for Christianity Today. Previously, he was editor of Today's Christian and New Man, the official magazine of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He is a coauthor of Gospel Trailblazer (Moody), the story of African American evangelist Howard O. Jones, the first black evangelist on Billy Graham's crusade team. Visit him at www.edgilbreath.com.

    Related to Remembering Birmingham

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Anjali Enjeti

      Dec 2, 2021

      If the pandemic had a theme, it would be that time is slippery, that our memories serve as life jackets in an uncertain world, and that our letters to others are really letters to our lonely, broken selves. The post A Year in Reading: Anjali Enjeti a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Filling In The Gaps

      Nov 12, 2019

      Filling In The Gaps
      4 min read

    • Article

      Youthquake

      Jan 24, 2020

      Youthquake
      14 min read

    • Article

      How To Write A Medieval Romance

      May 13, 2021

      This can be a rescue operation, a hunt for a magical object or animal, a giant who threatens the land or a Green Knight who lets you lop off his head. Particular favourites are transformation curses that need to be broken (eg werewolves) and the iden

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hammocks, Fireflies, And The 10 Best Books Of June

      Jun 8, 2021

      June’s long days provide plenty of time for reading alfresco. Let our reviewers’ suggestions guide your choices of the 10 best books to savor.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The 35 Best Films To Stream During Lockdown: From Raiders Of The Lost Ark To City Of God

      Jan 29, 2021

      The legendary film critic Roger Ebert called film “the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts”. Cinema offers us complete immersion in another reality, taking us on an almost out-of-body experience into someone else’s life and experience. But

      11 min read

    • Article

      Second Opinions

      Feb 14, 2022

      New rules. New strategies. New paths to success. While we may see those images of a solo writer in a coffee shop or room, the truth is that no book is a solo endeavor. One of the most important parts of the writing process is getting feedback on an e

      4 min read

    • Article

      Clarence Page: MLK’s Dream In The Era Of MAGA And CRT? Still A Dream

      Jan 14, 2022

      Pardon me if you’ve heard this story (I tell it a lot), but Martin Luther King Jr. Day always reminds me of how I learned the word “segregation.” I was a kid, visiting relatives in Alabama, which my parents called “down home,” when I decided I needed

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Forgotten King: Commentary On Protest, Race, And MLK

      Jun 5, 2020

      As U.S. cities writhe in protest, columnist Ken Makin urges Americans to consider the roots of rage feeding the unrest.

      4 min read

    • Article

      From MLK to Black Power: Books trace the Civil Rights Movement

      Jun 8, 2023

      In a sermon titled “Loving Your Enemies” that he delivered often in the early 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. insisted that he had taken the biblical command to heart. “Put us in jail, and we will go in with humble smiles on our faces, still loving you

      4 min read

    • Article

      After the Murder

      Jul 6, 2023

      After the Murder
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Whitewashing—and Resurrection—of Dr. King’s Legacy

      Apr 9, 2018

      ON SEPT. 20, 1966, IN THE SMALL TOWN of Grenada, Miss., Martin Luther King Jr. would not get out of bed. Andrew Young, his closest adviser, tried everything. He used all the techniques they had learned over the course of the movement when any one of

      5 min read

    Reviews for Remembering Birmingham

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words