The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

Author:Jemar Tisby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2018-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

THE CHRISTIAN MODERATE AND THE “LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL”

The year 1963 had been an especially eventful year for the civil rights movement, especially for Martin Luther King Jr. and the city of Birmingham, Alabama. A slew of bombings—including over fifty in a white neighborhood that was slowly integrating and was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill”—earned Birmingham the moniker “Bombingham.”15 Earlier that year, King had helped lead a boycott of downtown businesses in protest of segregation. On April 12, Good Friday, he was arrested and put into jail where he penned his renowned “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Then in the late summer of that year, 200,000 marchers converged on Washington DC for the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” where King delivered his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing happened just over two weeks later.

Martin Luther King Jr. knew that there would be a price to pay for his decision to support the black civil rights campaign in Birmingham in 1963. He did not take this decision lightly. King and his compatriots knew that to take on the city of Birmingham meant taking on their public safety commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor. King and the executive leadership team of the SCLC spent two days at a retreat to consider the implications of a campaign in the city. Bull Connor had a reputation. During Connor’s tenure over the local law enforcement, several racially motivated bombings remained “unsolved.” There was such a substantial risk of physical harm and even death that King reportedly said to his fellow leaders, “I have to tell you that in my judgment, some of the people sitting here today will not come back alive from this campaign. And I want you to think about it.”16 At the same time, a grassroots campaign of civil rights activism was gaining momentum in Birmingham. But it needed a boost, something only King and the SCLC could offer, if it hoped to secure lasting victory.

As expected, police soon arrested and jailed King. While he was incarcerated, eight white clergymen wrote a letter to King and his supporters advising them to depart and let the community handle race relations for itself. Today, much of the attention focuses on King’s letter, but the message King received from white, moderate Christians also deserves attention. Their message provides a stark illustration of how much of the American church responded to King and the civil rights movement.

In a missive, which was published in the local newspaper, the ministers criticize both the protests and the involvement of non-Birmingham residents. “We are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.”17 In their estimation, King did not know the contours of the local situation, and they believed his presence, along with the protests he led, threatened to undo the encouraging progress Birmingham had seen in recent months.

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