76
No.2
Deconstructing Dr. Martin Luther King’s
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and the
Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance
By Conra D. Gist and Karsonya Wise Whitehead
In June 1963, less than two months before the March
on Washington and two months after the release of Dr. King’s
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” President John F. Kennedy
addressed Congress and urged them to pass his Civil Rights Act.
The bill, which was a landmark piece of legislation that expanded
many of the ideas that were first passed in the Civil Rights Act of
1957, sought to provide all Americans with the right to be served
in public facilities and an increase in the protection of the right
to vote. Although it is not clear if Kennedy would have gotten the
Civil Rights Act through on his own, Lyndon B. Johnson, less
than five days after Kennedy’s assassination, used that event
as a rallying tool to shepherd the bill through the process. When
Johnson signed the Act in July 1964 with Dr. King and other civil
rights leaders present, there was a sense that the movement
had ended, the current landscape was changing, and, that as
a result, America was going to be a different place for Black
people. This new world of freedom and equality for everybody
was what Dr. King was alluding to when he wrote, just one year
earlier in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” that it was “time
to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice
to the solid rock of human dignity,” and that “oppressed people
cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom
eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the
American Negro.”1 Although it took 208 years, a Civil War, and
the Thirteenth Amendment for enslavement to legally end in this
country, it had only taken an additional 101 years for the laws of
the nation and the attitudes of some of its residents to mirror one
another.
treated as second-class citizens. They were not yet considered
to be an integral part of the fabric of this nation. Segregation
and citizenship were still defined by and limited to the United
States Supreme Court’s interpretations in the 1857 Dred Scott
v. Sanford and the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court
decisions rather than the Reconstruction Amendments.2 Although
there had been countless challenges to racial segregation and
discrimination (including the 1875 Civil Rights Act and the 1873
Slaughterhouse cases), it was not until the collective Brown
v. Board decisions that outlawed segregation and ordered
integration in the school system that the legal system finally
began to change.3 Even though this was not the “start” of the
civil rights era (one could argue that it actually started much
earlier with the 1849 Roberts v. City of Boston segregation
case), it did mark the beginning of the modern Civil Rights
Movement and set the stage for larger and more involved acts of
resistance both individually and collectively.
Setting the Stage
On March 2, 1955, two months before the release
of the Brown II decision, Claudette Colvin, a sixteen-yearold from Montgomery, Alabama, was the first person to be
arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus. Rosa
Parks successfully replicated this simple act of resistance nine
The Beginning
During Reconstruction (1865–1877), the attitudes and
months later with the support of the NAACP and the Montgomery
Improvement Association. Her arrest marked the beginning of
the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott and ushered a largely
the prejudices that had framed enslavement helped to shape and
unknown twenty-six-year-old minister onto the national stage and
cement the Jim Crow system. Black people were legally free in
into a major leadership role. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist
this country, but throughout the South and in some places in
minister and theologian, was selected to lead the association
the North, they were legally denied basic civil and human rights.
because he was not a well-known political leader. They needed
By 1954, even with all of the advances that had been made by
someone who was not known to the local authorities but who
and in the Black community, Black people were still seen and
had the potential to be the moral and political voice of the
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movement. They needed someone who could galvanize the
people and motivate them to commit to a nonviolent struggle
in an effort to force the city to accept integration. Dr. King did
not start the boycott, nor did he suggest it, but in assuming the
leadership of the association he was on his way to becoming the
heart and the soul of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Prior to Montgomery, King was a proponent
No.2
The Letter
By 1963, as a result of a number of successes and
defeats—including the 1957 struggle to integrate Little Rock and
the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC); the 1958 signing by President Eisenhower of the first
civil rights legislation since Reconstruction; the 1960 Sit-In
Movement; the 1961 Freedom Rides; and James Meredith’s
and supporter of the use of nonviolence as an organizing
1962 entrance into the University of Mississippi—the fabric of
mechanism. This political and social strategy has its roots
the nation had slowly given way to change. The landscape, which
in the early Christian church and was first used in modern
had previously been a stark contrast of white and black, was in
history by Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, in his struggle for
some ways starting to become motley shades of grey. Integration
India’s independence from British rule. King was familiar
was happening and it was making its way across the South; but
with the teachings of Christ and had studied Gandhi, social
a change in the laws did not mean that people’s hearts had been
activism, pacifism, and Karl Marx’s theories of capitalism and
changed.
the dispossessed. He was also aware of the ongoing work by
James Farmer and CORE, who were actively using nonviolent
Birmingham, Alabama. It was a racial stronghold led by Police
resistance in Chicago. Farmer, a civil rights activist and former
Commissioner “Bull” Conner who sanctioned the use of deadly
divinity student, founded CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality)
force and violence against Black people (including children)
in 1943 and adopted the use of nonviolent and passive resistant
and White sympathizers. The decision was made to take the
techniques. One year later, CORE field-tested Farmer’s nonviolent
movement to the frontlines of Birmingham and conduct a
approach in Chicago by successfully staging the first nonviolent
nonviolent protest against the city government and the downtown
sit-in and standing line demonstrations. Their use of nonviolence
retailers. Dr. King, along with the SCLC, partnered with the
as a technique in the American struggle for civil rights was
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) to
later adopted in Montgomery. The struggle for freedom was not
launch a nonviolent attack on the city’s segregation system
easy, and the commitment to remain nonviolent in the face of
on April 3, 1963.6 In swift retaliation, the city government
overwhelming and sometimes deadly violence shaped the moral
obtained an injunction against protest, which enabled them to
core of the movement. Although it was dangerous (and there are
arrest anyone who violated the ordinance. Despite the threat of
countless examples—from the use of tear gas and nightsticks
incarceration, Dr. King decided to lead the movement forward,
on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the use of dogs and firehoses
stating, “We cannot in all good conscience obey such an
against children in Birmingham—that bear this out), nonviolent
injunction which is an unjust, undemocratic and unconstitutional
resistance was “one of the most potent weapons available to
misuse of the legal process.”7
oppressed people in their quest for social justice.”
4
5
At the same time that nonviolence was used in the
field, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund continued to fight injustice
through the legal system. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that
segregated buses violated the Constitution, and one month after
that, the boycott ended and Montgomery’s bus system was
desegregated. Even though this was a clear victory, it was not
the end of the struggle to dismantle both de jure and de facto
segregation and social injustice. It was obvious to all that this
was the beginning of a prolonged (in some ways, never ending)
fight to change both America and the daily experience of Black
people in this country.
One of the cities where this was painfully obvious was
King’s refusal to draw back, and instead press on,
resulted in his arrest on April 12, 1963. On the same day the
Birmingham News published a statement titled “A Call for Unity,”
written by eight White clergymen who argued that the struggle
for civil rights belonged in the courthouse and not on the streets.
Although the statement did not mention Dr. King by name, it was
addressed to him and to other “outsiders.” In it, they strongly
urged the Birmingham Black community to “withdraw support
from these demonstrations, and to unite locally in working
peacefully for a better Birmingham.”8 It was from inside his cell
in Birmingham that Dr. King outlined how he and the SCLC were
planning to go forward: in love, in nonviolence, and in haste.
King, working with pastor and civil rights activist Wyatt T. Walker,
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penned an open letter of response on slips of paper that were
May to skip class in nonviolent protest.12 To retaliate against the
later compiled and published in the Liberation.9 King’s letter was
nonviolent act, Commissioner Connor ruthlessly ordered the
eventually distributed by the American Friends Service Committee
police force to use high-pressure hoses on the youth, unwittingly
and in periodicals such as Christian Century, Christian and Crisis,
allowing the media to circulate deeply troubling images that
Ebony, New York Post, and later in his 1964 memoir, Why We
provoked outrage across the nation. In response to the public
Can’t Wait? In the letter, King argued for the use of nonviolence,
outcry, federal representatives were eventually brought in to
direct action, and involvement by everyone who believed in civil
negotiate with the Birmingham Senior Citizens’ Council. Although
rights and social justice and outlined why he felt it was necessary
there was some internal disagreement between Dr. King and
for him to be in Birmingham:
other civil rights leaders about the terms of negotiation, King
10
…I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as
the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages
and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond
the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the
Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco
Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel
of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I
must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for
aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness
of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in
Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in
Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever
affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again
can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside
agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States
can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its
bounds.11
The economic and political pressure from the movement
began to mount on Birmingham businesses. King was later
released from jail on April 20, 1963, after his wife, Coretta Scott
King, expressed her concern to the Kennedy administration and
was able to arrange bail. Not long after, the Children’s Crusade,
an idea originally proposed by James Bevel, a SCLC leader,
organized over a thousand Black students at the beginning of
eventually agreed to the council’s request for a moratorium from
public demonstrations, and the Birmingham Truce agreement
was established on May 10, 1963, to begin the process of
desegregation.13 Although change did not occur immediately after
Birmingham, it was there that the movement continued its slow
march toward freedom.
Beyond Birmingham
April 16, 2013, marked the fiftieth anniversary of
Dr. King’s civil rights manifesto. To commemorate this day,
community celebrations were organized around the globe and
readers spoke life into King’s penetrating words of passion and
commitment.14 For Dr. King, and for some of the other leaders of
the modern Civil Rights Movement, nonviolent resistance was
more than an organizing tactic: it was a way of life. It was how
they chose to live out their faith in principles that reached back to
the roots of what they believed in.
King viewed silence and inaction as a formidable enemy
of the modern Civil Rights Movement, arguing, “We will have to
repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and
actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good
people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability;
it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be
coworkers with God.”15 Among his many roles and distinctions,
King was a public intellectual who transformed his theological
and philosophical beliefs into concrete steps toward justice; his
action plan was systematic and resolute in the face of failure,
applauding those who “have acted in the faith that right defeated
is stronger than evil triumphant.”16 Undoubtedly, our nation has
made great strides; the first Black president of the United States
is beginning his second term in office. Yet, progress must not
simply be symbolic, but tangible and actualized in the lives of
Black people. In this sense, the spirit of Dr. King’s letter still
challenges the complacent and remains instructive for anyone
embarking on a fight for freedom today.
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Lesson Plan
Activist Writing: Deconstructing Dr. Martin Luther King’s Political Essays17
By Conra D. Gist and Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Intended Audience: Middle and High School Students
Overview: This lesson explores how political essays were used as a form of activism during the modern Civil Rights Movement (1954–
1972). Three political essays—Dr. King’s “Power of Non-violence” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and “A Call to Unity” by the
Alabama Clergymen—are analyzed and evaluated as a window through which students can begin to understand the intense turmoil that
took place during the 1960s.
Scope and Sequence: The lesson begins with a broad conceptualization of key events that shaped the focus and work of the modern
Civil Rights Movement. Students will examine a series of video, photo, textile, and audio sources to interpret the historical context
of this time period. With this context in mind, students will then engage in a series of close reading activities in order to analyze and
evaluate three political essays that are emblematic of the opposition against, as well as the need for, a proactive, nonviolent movement.
Additional Information: With the recent shift in education toward state adoption of the National Common Core Standards, there are
two videos that teachers can access that may provide additional insight into how to design lessons using the Common Core Standards
in History. More specifically, the videos demonstrate different ways to apply the close reading strategy to Dr. King’s “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.”18
National Standards for History:19
Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
A. Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, personalities, behaviors, and institutions by identifying likenesses and
differences.
B. Consider multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes and
fears.
H. Hold interpretations of history as tentative, subject to changes as new information is uncovered, new voices heard, and new
interpretations broached.
J. Hypothesize the influence of the past, including both the limitations and opportunities made possible by past decisions.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RI. 9-10.8—Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is
valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RI.9-10.9—Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington’s Farewell
Address, the Gettysburg, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related
themes and concepts.
Objectives
The lesson objectives are to:
1) Annotate, analyze, and evaluate the central arguments outlined in three political essays:
a) “The Power of Non-violence”
b) “A Call to Unity”
c) “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
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2) Review and synthesize the major events that happened in the modern Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s.
3) Evaluate the key tenets of the philosophy of nonviolence.
Essential Questions
1. Can the philosophy of nonviolence be used for social change?
2. How do readers deconstruct complex texts?
Political Essay #1: The Philosophy of Nonviolence
Warm-Up
1. Tell the students that they are going to spend some significant time talking about the philosophy of nonviolence as an
organizing tactic during the modern Civil Rights Movement. Explain that the use of activist writing to advance the movement’s
mission will also be explored.
2. Activate prior knowledge by asking the students to share what they know about the nonviolence movement. Write their
answers on the board and tell them the class will review the list to determine what is true and what is not at the end of the
lesson. Ask students to also share questions they have about the Civil Rights Movement so they are also engaged in inquiry as
they move through the lesson.
3. Depending upon whether your classroom has Internet access, either play the “1960s Civil Rights Movement” video clip or
play the song “Strange Fruit” while showing them photos that depict some of the violence that occurred during the Civil Rights
Movement.20
4. After they look through the photos or watch the clip, have them read the quotes and work in small groups to discuss how Dr.
King’s quote and Malcolm X’s quotes contradict one another, then decide which quote they agree with and why.
If necessary, explain to them that even though African Americans were legally free in America, the Jim Crow laws restricted
their political, social, and economic rights.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and
ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. —Dr. King, 1964
I don’t favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and
good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I’m also a realist. The only people in this country
who are asked to be nonviolent are black people. —Malcolm X21
Shared Reading
5. Explain to students that writing political essays is a form of activism that can be used to bring about social change.22 Over the
next couple of days they will examine three different types of essays from the Civil Rights Movement.
6. The first political essay students will read is Dr. King’s “The Power of Non-violence.”23 Explain and model how they will use
a close reading strategy to understand the central arguments underpinning the essay.24 Identify appropriate close reading
strategies from “Closing in on Close Reading” to model for students.25
7. Organize students in small groups to conduct a shared reading of Dr. King’s political essay “The Power of Non-violence.” Ask
students to use the modeled close reading strategies to analyze the essay and discuss the most salient points. Once small
groups complete their initial reading and analysis, facilitate a whole-class discussion.
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Wrap-Up
8. After completing the close reading discussion, have students revisit the nonviolence list they made at the beginning of the
lesson to determine whether the list is accurate, remove things that are not true, add other points to the list, and identify any
outstanding questions.
If students are still unclear about the history of nonviolence (as a religious ideology and as an organizing tactic) and how
Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, James Famer, and Dr. King relied on it, take a few minutes to conduct a short Lecture Blast.26
9. To close the session and assess student learning, instruct students to write a short reflection on what it means to stage a
nonviolent campaign to achieve equality and social justice. Invite them to share their responses with the class.
Political Essay #2: The Sociopolitical Context of Dr. King’s “Letter”
Warm-Up
1. Building on the previous activity, this lesson allows students to examine another political essay. Explain to the students that
they are going to discuss “A Call to Unity,” which is the political statement that prompted Dr. King to write his “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.”27
2. Using both the “Timeline” and the “Words and Phrases” from the online Civil Rights Movement dictionary, create a timeline
on the board to highlight some of the key events that took place during the modern Civil Rights Movement to help students
understand what was happening throughout the South prior to Dr. King’s arrest. 28 Time permitting (and depending upon your
classroom’s access to technology), have students work through the “Timeline” website in small groups or individually.
Partnership
3. Explain to students that they will practice another close reading technique called text annotations to deconstruct the political
essay “A Call to Unity.” Organize students in partnerships to complete the task.29
4. Once students complete text annotations on “A Call to Unity,” discuss the parts of the text students annotated. Ask textdependent questions to guide the whole class in a discussion to deconstruct the central arguments of the Alabama clergymen.
5. Return to the nonviolence list from the previous day to clarify any understandings or outstanding questions with the class.
Wrap-Up
6. Provide each student with a copy of the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”30 Ask students to read the letter and complete text
annotations as an independent homework assignment.
Political Essay #3: Deconstructing Dr. King’s “Letter”
Small Group
1. Tell students that they are going to work in small groups to reread Dr. King’s “Letter” and generate two lists that outline a) the
key events in the history of nonviolence, and b) the goals and activities of the Civil Rights Movement.
2. If possible, students can use the Internet to find more information on each of the points mentioned in Dr. King’s “Letter.”
Class Discussion
3. Once students are finished, have them share their lists with the class and then add any information that they have missed.
4. Conduct a whole-group discussion on the following:
xx What does Dr. King’s “Letter” teach us about the sociopolitical context of the United States during the 1960s?
xx What counterarguments and writing techniques did Dr. King use to refute the clergymen’s claims in “A Call to Unity?”
xx Do you agree or disagree with the tenets of the nonviolence movement? Why or why?
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xx How was Dr. King’s letter used to advance the mission of the Civil Rights Movement?
xx Would a system of nonviolence work today? (Challenge the students to think about problems currently plaguing their
communities and the use of nonviolence as a way to either make changes or make people aware of the problems.)
Wrap-Up
5. Time permitting, tell students that nonviolent resistance has been used in protests since 1849. Using the Time magazine
photos of the “Top 10 Nonviolent Protests,” take them through a quick overview highlighting how it has been used, to help
your students understand that it was not limited to the modern Civil Rights Movement.31
6. Tell students to take a moment and write a reflection on three things that they have learned about the nonviolence movement
and about nonviolent resistance.
Evaluating Activist Writing: Taking a Stance
Performance Task
1. Tell students that they need to take a position on whether Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence is an effective instrument for
social change by writing a critical essay or developing a critical media presentation. The students should cite the three political
essays in their paper or presentation, using evidence from the essays to support their position and address counterarguments.
Wrap-Up
2. Once the students have completed their essays and presentations, revisit the essential questions (Is nonviolence a viable
instrument for social change? Are political essays an effective form of activism?) and have student volunteers share their
essays and presentations with the class.
3. Time permitting, students can engage in a debate about the use of nonviolence for social change (this can build on their earlier
discussion about the use of nonviolence to confront problems in their communities).
Conra D. Gist, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the
University of Arkansas. She received her Ph.D. from the City University of New York
(CUNY). Her primary research interests focus on teacher diversity, culturally responsive
pedagogy, and teacher learning. She can be reached at [email protected].
Karsonya “Kaye” Wise Whitehead, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of
Communication and an affiliate assistant professor of African and African American
History at Loyola University Maryland. She is a former middle school teacher, the
2006-07 Gilder Lehrman Maryland History Teacher of the Year, and a three-time
New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker. Dr. Whitehead is the author of
two forthcoming books, Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of
Emilie Frances Davis (USC Press, 2014) and The Emancipation Proclamation: Race
Relations on the Eve of Reconstruction (Routledge, 2014). Her website is http://
kayewisewhitehead.com/ and she can be reached at [email protected].
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(Endnotes)
1
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Bates College Online, accessed February 15, 2013, http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/
dos/mlk/letter.html.
2
The Dred Scott decision decided that Black people were not citizens and did not have any “rights that the white man was
bound to respect,” and the Plessy decision stated “separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were
‘equal.’” “Dred Scott Case: The Supreme Court Decision,” accessed February 15, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933.
html; “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow,” accessed February 15, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html.
3
In 1954, the USSC ruled that segregated schools were not equal under the law, and one year later, they ordered the schools
to integrate “with all deliberate speed.” “Brown v. Board of Education (1954),” accessed February 15, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/
supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html.
4
For more on Dr. King’s understanding of nonviolence, see his 1958 essay: “My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,” accessed March
15, 2013, http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/1-Sept-1958_MyPilgrimageToNonviolence.pdf.
5
Ibid.
6
“Birmingham Campaign 1963,” accessed April 17, 2013, http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/
encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/.
7
Ibid.
8
“A Call for Unity,” accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//frequentdocs/clergy.pdf.
9
Between 1964 and 1996, Dr. King’s “Letter” was reprinted at least fifty times in 325 editions of fifty-eight readers that were
intended for use in college-level and composition courses.
10
“Commentary on ‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail,’” accessed April 17, 2013, http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/
encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_letter_from_birmingham_jail_1963/.
11
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.
africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.
12
“Children’s Crusade,” accessed April 17, 2013, http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_
childrens_crusade/;
“Birmingham Campaign 1963.”
13
Ibid.
14
“Letter from Birmingham Jail: A Worldwide Celebration,” Birmingham Public Library, accessed February 15, 2013, http://
www.bplonline.org/programs/1963/letter.aspx.
15
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania.
16
Ibid.
17
All websites used during the lesson were accessed on March 28, 2013.
18
“Close Reading of Text: Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.,” http://vimeo.com/album/1655200/
video/27056255; “Preparing for Close Reading with Students: Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.,” http://vimeo.com/
album/1655200/video/27064472.
19
“History Standards,” National Center for History in the Schools, http://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/.
20
“1960s Civil Rights Movement,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXBvLbYqVMA; “Primary Sources,” National Visionary
Leadership Project, http://www.visionaryproject.org/teacher/lesson1/primary.html#id2; Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit,” iTunes, https://
itunes.apple.com/us/album/strange-fruit-remastered-single/id492233359.
21
“Malcolm X Quotations,” http://www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.htm.
22
“Overview of the Academic Essay,” http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Overvu.html.
23
“The Power of Nonviolence,” http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-power-of-non-violence/.
24
“How to Do a Close Reading,” http://www.engageny.org/resource/middle-school-ela-curriculum-video-close-reading-of-atext-mlk-letter-from-birmingham-jail
25
“Closing in on Close Reading,” http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-onClose-Reading.aspx
26
“Evaluating Nonviolence as a Method of Social Change,” http://www.visionaryproject.org/teacher/lesson3/hist.html.
27
“A Call to Unity,” http://www.stanford.edu/group/King//frequentdocs/clergy.pdf.
28
“Civil Rights Timeline,” http://www.visionaryproject.org/timeline/; “Words and Phrases from the Civil Rights Movement,”
http://www.visionaryproject.org/teacher/lesson1/wordsphrases.html.
29
“Independent Reading Strategies for Students,” https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-annotated-reading-strategy.
30
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/annotated_letter_from_
birmingham/.
31
“Top 10 Nonviolent Protests,” http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1887394,00.html (note: photographs #6 and
#7 are from the modern Civil Rights Movement).
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