Chapter 17: The Birmingham Campaign, Chapter 18: Letter from Birmingham Jail Summary and Analysis

Birmingham, Alabama is a notoriously racist town. Life for black people is difficult there, and full of oppression. Birmingham has banned the NAACP from doing civil rights work there. Violence against blacks is the norm. The white supremacy of Birmingham is threatened by the freedom fighters in Birmingham and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who form the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACHR). In 1962, the SCLC decide to focus on Birmingham to achieve a major victory there. So the SCLC set to organize. Many join the planned sit-ins and sing "freedom songs."

People begin to be arrested in large numbers. The major gets a court order to stop the protests and the protestors disobey the order. King and Abernathy offer themselves to be arrested. The SCLC...