Statement by Alabama Clergymen
The public statement of 12 April 1963 in which eight white religious leaders of Alabama called the Birmingham demonstrations unwise and untimely and urged the city’s Black community to withdraw support from them. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail answers it.
The statement is signed by C. C. J. Carpenter, bishop of Alabama, and George M. Murray, bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal diocese of Alabama; Joseph A. Durick, Catholic auxiliary bishop of Mobile-Birmingham; the Methodist bishops Paul Hardin and Nolan B. Harmon; Edward V. Ramage, moderator of the Synod of the Alabama Presbyterian Church in the United States; Earl Stallings, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Birmingham; and Rabbi Milton L. Grafman of Temple Emanu-El, Birmingham. Seven of the eight were Christian ministers. The signers recall that they had issued an earlier appeal for law and order in January.
The text is often reprinted under the title “A Call for Unity”, which the statement itself does not carry; the King Institute heads it “Statement by Alabama Clergymen”. It does not name King. See the Churches and the Civil Rights Movement.
Cited in
- 16 April 1963, firm date