Book Review
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
Verdict : Buy, Read, Retain for Re read.
This penguin mini is a must read and a must have. The book about 50 pages long has in its first part a letter dated April 16, 1963, written by King jr. from an Alabama jail as a response to eight white Alabama clergymen who denounced the civil disobedience movement against racial discrimination and segregation terming it untimely, unwise and observed that the issue ought be taken up in courtroom and not on streets.
A little after beginning the letter, Martin Luther King Jr. claims injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. He goes onto explain the four essential steps of a non violent campaign, how creation of a constructive non violent tension is essential to ensure the community takes note of an issue that for long has been sidelined. He states justice too long delayed is justice denied, also that one has legal and moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws, just like it has to obey just laws. He ends the letter with the hope that he stands one day with the white clergymen not as a civil rights leader but as a Christian brother in an atmosphere where there is peace and brotherhood.
If I were to write down powerful lines from this letter, I am afraid I might have to reproduce almost all of it here.
The second part of the book is King Jr. 's sermon titled The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life , first delivered at the new covenant Baptist Church in Chicago in 1967. This sermon details what makes up the length , breadth and height dimensions of one's life and is astoundingly relevant even in current times, may be starkly essential now.
Please buy, read and retain this little treasure. Buy, Read, Retain for a Re read, am being assertive about this without doubt.
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