Read online: Letter from Birmingham Jail. In April 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., spent several days in solitary confinement in a dark, filthy, jail cell with no mattress in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. During that time, he wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" on bits of balled-up newspapers and toilet tissue that he slipped to his lawyer. The letter remains an eloquent articulation of his vision for a better world.
"Let us all hope that...in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.