Classic texts: No. 17 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham City Jail (1963)

2013 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’. Written during the height of the struggle for African-American civil rights in the United States, the document (an essay written in the form of an open letter) represents a powerful philosophical and theological treatise about social justice and the nature of social and political change. The letter addresses a number of important themes that remain relevant today for community and political activists concerned with social justice. The article briefly highlights three key issues and their significance in terms of a political understanding of social and political change. First, the nature of a so-called civil society; second, the role of the ‘outsider’ as political agitator; and third, the significance and necessity of tension in promoting social justice.