“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Response Questions
The numbers below correspond to the numbers in your reading.
Name _______________________________
Date _____________ Period ____
1.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” This is considered one of King’s most famous quotes. How does this quote apply to us, high school students, adults, all of us, today?
2.
In your own words, what are the steps of nonviolent direct action? How, if at all, do these steps reflect
Transcendentalism?
3.
How does King define the goal of “constructive nonviolent tension”? Why is this important to create?
4.
In paragraph 7 is another of King’s most well known statements. Can you think of an example, either historical or personal in nature, where “justice too long delayed is justice denied”?
5.
This paragraph is one of King’s most powerful. How does King evoke an emotional response here? Which parts has the strongest effect on you? Why? How does this paragraph support Thoreau’s ideas about “unjust” laws?
6.
King defines just and unjust laws. In your own words, what is the difference?
7.
Can you give other examples in the present of unjust laws you feel a moral obligation to disobey? Would you be willing to accept the consequences?

8.
Do you need to obey a law that you did not participate in creating? Most of you are under 18. Do you need to live by a law you did not participate in making? Should residents in a county obey laws they did not participate in creating?
9.
King lists a number of historical examples of civil disobedience (paragraph 13-14). For each example there were hundreds, thousands, even millions who chose to go accept an unjust law. Why do citizens choose to be silent about a law they may find unjust? What are the social and legal consequences for civil disobedience?
10. Why, in your own words, is King “gravely disappointed with the white moderate”?
11. King says that his words here are “not a threat but a fact of history.” Do you think there is an underlying threat implied here? Why or why not?
12. Why does King welcome the label extremist?
13. Find one quote from Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and one quote from King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that you feel relate to one another. Write both quotes below and briefly explain how they are similar.
14. Do you like King’s piece better than Thoreau’s? Why or why not?