3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

As in Montgomery, civil rights agitation in Birmingham raised the possibility of not
only retaliation by blacks but also violent revolt by them. King exploited this fear to advance
the movement. In a newspaper column in New York Amsterdam News, he cautioned that
blacks would remain nonviolent "only so long." His famous "Letter from Birmingham City
Jail," written on scrap paper and smuggled out of the jail, similarly warned that without
progress toward eradicating segregation, "a frightening racial nightmare" could arise from
blacks resorting to "black-nationalist ideologies ." n King again redefined nonviolence as a
sunwogate for wanton violence, and in doing so, reaffirmed the either/or rationale of the
violent/nonviolent dichotomy . Nonviolence originally represented an expression of
theological commitment to peace, but King, in pleading for reconciliation and brotherhood in
Birmingham, redefined it as an alternative to violence by blacks towani white aggressors.
The events in Birmingham-along with the assassination of NAACP field secretary
Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi on June 12,1963-sparked debate regarding the role
of self-defense in the struggle for black equality among civil rights activists in the Deep
South . Indeed, self-defense became a focal point in Mississippi during the Summer Project
of 1964 (Freedom Summer) . Activists rankled at the prospect of being locked into King's
plan for nonviolent resistance in any locale, under any circumstances . For example, Bob
Zellner and Clarcnce Robinson, both members of the Council of Federated Organizations
(COFO), debated the virtues of self-defense at Gnoenwood's Friendship Church. "It has been
proven time and time again," Robinson argued, "that when a man fights back he is not
2'King, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait (New York : Signet, 1963),
87 . This letter has been reprinted numerous times in various sources .
96