King's letter highlights MLK day observancePosted: January 27th, 2009CONTACT: John Shibley, e-mail, 906-635-2314; Tom Pink, e-mail, 635-2315.
CIVIL RIGHTS REFLECTION – Lake Superior State University Business Associate Professor Carl Smalls shares his impressions of civil rights leader Martin Luther King during a remembrance evening held in LSSU’s Arts Center. Members of the Lake State Theatre Company recited Letter from Birmingham Jail: Reflections on the Life and Teachings of Dr. King. LSSU students and staff also talked about how King's teachings affected their lives. (LSSU photo by Marissa Ingle)
A print-resolution photo that runs with this caption can be found by clicking here.
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Friends and neighbors from both sides of the St. Mary's River celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19 when Lake Superior State University presented Letter from Birmingham Jail: Reflections on the Life and Teachings of Dr. King in the LSSU Arts Center Auditorium.
The program featured King's reflections on his eight-day incarceration in April 1963 after being arrested during a civil rights demonstration. Members of the Lake State Theatre Company recited a dramatic adaptation of the letter. LSSU students and staff also talked about how King's teachings have affected their lives.
"There are many students and scholars of the civil rights era who identify 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' as the most important written piece of that turbulent and challenging time in American history," says Simon Purdy, president of the LSSU Student Organization for Diversity. Originally published in the June 12, 1963 edition of The Christian Century, it was subsequently published in the June 24 issue of The New Leader, and shortly thereafter in The Atlantic Monthly.
King wrote Letter in April 1963 when he and 52 others were arrested after engaging in a series of sit-ins and pickets aimed at ending municipal segregation ordinances in Birmingham, Ala. In response to the protestors' actions, eight white Alabama clergymen wrote a letter titled "A Call for Unity," that was published in the Birmingham News. The letter was critical of the protests undertaken by King and his followers and said, "…the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts and not in the streets." The clergymen called for racial harmony and claimed that the demonstrations were "unwise," "untimely," and "extreme."
King responded that civil rights might never be achieved nor segregation ended without non-violent actions such as the Birmingham protest. He wrote, "This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never,'" and added, "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." The letter includes King's famous statement, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
King wrote his response during his imprisonment, giving bits and pieces of the letter to his lawyers to take back to the civil rights movement’s headquarters. After his release, King and Reverend Wyatt Walker compiled all that King had written and had it published.
LSSU's Shouldice Library has a display and resource area set up through January for people to learn more about King's challenges and accomplishments.
The program was sponsored by the LSSU Student Activities Board, the Student Organization for Diversity, and offices of the Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs.
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