Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Abstract

This book consists of two distinct parts. First, the author subjects Martin Luther King's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to detailed technical scrutiny, seeking to explain how the document actually was created. S. Jonathan Bass convincingly demonstrates, making good use of oral interviews and transcripts of FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) bugs of King's telephone conversations, that it was a lengthy process that began in the jail in Birmingham but continued outside for some time. Close advisers and even King himself after he was released from prison edited, reworked, and polished the original draft until the final version appeared. This is a more complex and accurate picture of the creation of the letter than existed previously, but the new version does not challenge King's authorship in any significant way. An important appendix containing the full text with all emendations and additions makes clear that the central ideas and argument of the letter appeared in the earliest version written by King in jail. The subsequent alterations also are not surprising, since it is well known that in the 1960s King frequently used assistants to help shape many of his written articles and essays. Also, the instant recognition by King and his supporters of the public importance of the document meant that inevitably the letter would be precisely honed into the most forceful and clear statement possible before it was published. We are in Bass's debt for this new understanding.