Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1996

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

History

Major Professor

James C. Cobb

Committee Members

Cynthia G. Fleming, Charles Johnson, Ed Caudill

Abstract

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s overflowed with symbols and heroes of the African-American quest for racial justice. One of the most enduring images was Martin Luther King Jr. imprisoned in the Birmingham Jail. While in an isolated prison cell, King began composing the Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Despite the document's personal appearance as a correspondence addressed to eight religious leaders, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference used the Letter (and the clergy) for impersonal means. Released to the public as an open letter, the twenty-page, type-written manuscript was, simply stated, a public relations document--clearly composed for media consumption. Arrested on Good Friday, April 12, 1963, King had defied a court injunction and led a protest march in the streets of Birmingham. In jail, King began composing the Letter from his cell. This image of a lone apostolic figure, writing a prison epistle, became an important symbol for the movement. This story also became one of the selling points for SCLC officials seeking to use the document for publicity and fund raising. King, however, only wrote part of the Letter while in prison. King and others continued to compose and edit long after the April 16 date on the manuscript. This suggests that the Letter from Birmingham Jail was never intended as a personal correspondence, but a document for the mass media.

The white clergy, to whom it was addressed, never received a personalized, delivered, or signed copy of the Letter from Birmingham Jail from King. They first read the Letter when it appeared in miscellaneous newspapers, magazines, and journals across the country in May, June, and August 1963. In the nearly thirty-five years since the Birmingham movement, these religious leaders have been consistently portrayed as bigots and defenders of the status quo. Few ever paused to consider the reaction of the Letter's ostensible audience.

This dissertation advances two central arguments: 1) The Letter from Birmingham Jail furthered the SCLC's central goal of obtaining extensive media coverage and served as a public relations document; 2) Conversely, the Letter also had an intensely personal impact upon each of the eight white clergy.

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