We started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, 'Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?' and 'Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?' We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community. As in so many experiences of the past, we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. As the weeks and months unfolded, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. On the basis of these promises, Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstration. In these negotiating sessions certain promises were made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers.

These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. I N ANY nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action.

Letter from birmingham jail annotations