The “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail Background (Pre-reading)” was about the heated tension rising in
Birmingham due to the racial segregation in the city and how Martin Luther king was asked to come by
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. He was need due to his ability to “electrify a
population, and frankly to antagonize a population as well” So he is willing let himself be arrested which
was scary at the time since people with high influence disappeared quickly especially minority. His
friends, family and co-workers were worried about him, but his safety was achievable by john f Kennedy
giving him protection. In these heated times the 8 clergymen of Alabama wrote a letter in the news
paper “telling King to slow things down, to calm down, to, to lower the temperature.” Which then was
responded by king with one of the greatest protest documents and letters, “The Letter from Birmingham
Jail” This document “brings together King's passion, of course, his eloquence, but also humanizes this in
a way that connected with many people. This was an, an immediate sensation.”