A Reinterpretation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

FAIN: FB-56297-12

Jonathan Rieder
Barnard College (New York, NY 10027-6909)

My project reinterprets Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” To grasp King’s inside-the-text maneuvers, I focus on two neglected aspects of context: his repertoire of “black talk,” elements of which migrated into “Letter”; and his oratory in Birmingham’s black churches, which retracted aspects of “Letter.” This evidence allows us to glimpse in “Letter” not just flashes of racial anger but a counter-text, in which sublime universalism yielded to irrepressible blackness and acts of rational justification could not mask prophetic preaching and the sting of chastisement. This project revises our understanding of an iconic text of American letters; recasts King as a code-switcher gliding in and out of black and universal idioms and identities; and underscores the value of cultural sociology and the ethnography of speaking for all disciplines concerned with the interpretation of written texts and oral performance.

Media Coverage

(Review)
Publication: Kirkus, BookList, Publisher's weekly
Date: 3/29/2013
URL: http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=5908045&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

(Review)
Publication: Kirkus, BookList, Publisher's weekly
Date: 3/29/2013
URL: http://www.booklistonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?pid=5908045&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Associated Products

Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation (Book)
Title: Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation
Author: Jonathan Rieder
Abstract: Gospel of Freedom explores the intricacies of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s rejoinder to the eight white clergymen who criticized the Birmingham protests and branded King an extremist. The book analyzes the dramatic tension that characterizes the two halves of the "Letter." In the first section, King emerges as the "Diplomat," who seeks to justify himself to his white critics and win them over through rational explication, appeals to pathos, moral exhortation, and manners. In the second section, King abandons the effort to persuade whites and becomes a prophet unbound, who focuses on chiding and chastizing them. It is as if we are meeting King anew, and we encounter not the hopeful dreamer but the angry prophet who rebuked white America, found solace in the faith and reislience of the slaves, and believed that moral appeal without struggle never brings justice.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Freedom-Birmingham-Struggle-Changed/dp/1620400588
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 1620400588
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

---