Eight White Clergymen Character Analysis

The Eight White Clergymen who wrote “A Call for Unity,” an open letter that criticized the Birmingham protests, are the implied readers of King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King refers to them as “My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” and later on as “my Christian and Jewish brothers.” These men were Birmingham religious leaders from the Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches as well as a Jewish temple; during the Birmingham protests, they met to discuss their concerns and ended up publishing their open letter, in which they questioned the timing of the protests and recommended that African Americans fight their battle against segregation in the courts rather than in the street. Most significantly, they claimed that the protests were being conducted by “outsiders,” referring indirectly to Martin Luther King, Jr., who was not from Birmingham. Their suggestion that outside activists should not be involved in Birmingham politics was the inspiration for one of King’s most famous statements, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”