{"id":17035,"date":"2026-06-05T12:33:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/draft-of-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-found-at-virginia-seminary-archives\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T12:33:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:03:27","slug":"draft-of-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-found-at-virginia-seminary-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/draft-of-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-found-at-virginia-seminary-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft of King\u2019s \u2018Letter from Birmingham Jail\u2019 found at Virginia seminary archives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_1Pn5bC2GdGa?ui_title_intro=Listen+now%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.1.5\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (RNS) \u2014 Within a red binder, each of its typewritten pages encased in plastic sleeves, sits an early draft of the famous letter written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as he was held in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>Ten pages that once were considered for the 1963 \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u201d were discovered in March by a graduate student concluding an internship by examining papers donated to the African American Episcopal Historical Collection, a joint venture of the <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2021\/04\/07\/biden-says-seminary-covid-19-vaccine-clinic-is-example-of-america-at-its-finest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Virginia Theological Seminary<\/a> and the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/vts.edu\/letterfromabirminghamjail\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft<\/a> was found in the papers of Bishop John M. Burgess, the first African American to serve as an Episcopal diocesan bishop, and his wife, Esther. The papers, donated by the daughters of the couple that was active in the Civil Rights Movement, are housed at the seminary near Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI screamed, but I also wept,\u201d said Riley Temple, the collection\u2019s growth specialist, of seeing the letter, with its yellowed pages, for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>He views it as a part of the \u201cbig year\u201d of 1963 that featured a list of changes and challenges, including the desegregation of the University of Alabama, the March on Washington and the bombing of the <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2019\/09\/12\/birmingham-church-56-years-later-to-recall-bombing-with-messages-of-love-action\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe civil rights revolution had been going on for quite some time when this letter was written, but intellectually and academically, I see the 1963 letter as being a beginning of a scholarship that informed the Civil Rights Movement,\u201d said Temple, who joined other archives staffers in an interview at the seminary\u2019s Bishop Payne Library.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4262420\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 480px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vts.edu\/letterfromabirminghamjail\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4262420 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-480x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-480x640.jpg 480w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-277x369.jpg 277w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text edd-enabled\"><span class=\"caption\">A recently discovered draft of Martin Luther King Jr.<span>\u2019<\/span>s \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u201d at Bishop Payne Library on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary, Monday, June 1, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. CLICK the image to view the full letter. (RNS photo\/Adelle M. Banks)<\/span><span class=\"credit\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2023\/04\/28\/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-ever-say-faith-leaders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>60 years on, King\u2019s \u2018Letter from Birmingham Jail\u2019 relevant as ever, say faith leaders<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>King\u2019s letter was sent to white clergy \u2014 he referred to them as \u201cmy Christian and Jewish brothers\u201d \u2014 who had questioned the urgency and the need for the Birmingham campaign of sit-ins and boycotts he had led as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was jailed for its organization of a nonviolent demonstration on Good Friday in the Alabama city that year.<\/p>\n<p>After checking with experts of the Civil Rights Movement and historical documents, staffers of the seminary\u2019s archives determined that the document described as an 11-page typeset \u2014 though its last page is missing \u2014 was one of several versions of what became one of King\u2019s most well-known writings.<\/p>\n<p>In it he declared: \u201cInjustice 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those words are included in the recently discovered version as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/pdf\/MLK_Letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">final published version<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4262419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 750px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4262419\" src=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-427x285.jpg 427w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-807x538.jpg 807w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter2-380x253.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text edd-enabled\"><span class=\"caption\">Archivist Denton Waits, from left, archives assistant Kayla Floyd, Riley Temple and the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham pose around a recently discovered draft of Martin Luther King Jr.<span>\u2019<\/span>s \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u201d at Bishop Payne Library on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary, Monday, June 1, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (RNS photo\/Adelle M. Banks)<\/span><span class=\"credit\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A staffer at Swann Auction Galleries in New York estimated that the document discovered is worth $15,000 to $25,000. The auction house\u2019s sale of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swanngalleries.com\/auction-lot\/martin-luther-king.-early-draft-of-the-letter-fro_eb9424f9e0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">another 11-page typeset<\/a> sold in what that employee described as \u201ca fluke\u201d for $185,000 in 2021. A 13-page version sold for $40,000 in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>But the one housed at VTS is not for sale, said seminary archivist Denton Waits, and archive staffers plan to seek advice from conservationists about the best ways to preserve the draft letter and make its contents available for the public to view.<\/p>\n<p>The single-spaced document found in Virginia was part of a multistep process that began with King writing thoughts in newspaper margins. His notes would eventually be written into a full letter of <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2023\/04\/28\/60-years-on-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-relevant-as-ever-say-faith-leaders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 6,000 words<\/a> published in a <a href=\"https:\/\/archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov\/pdf\/MLK_Letter.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pamphlet of the American Friends Service Committee<\/a>, a group founded by the Quakers, and included in King\u2019s book \u201cWhy We Can\u2019t Wait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Archives assistant Kayla Floyd compared the document from the Burgesses\u2019 papers with other drafts, such as a digital version on the University of Alabama\u2019s website, and the final version of the letter to see variations in wording, quotations and punctuation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the majority of the message is the same, line by line is the same,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, there are certain sections where things are kind of pieced differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4091304\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 750px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4091304\" src=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-427x277.jpg 427w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-807x524.jpg 807w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-768x498.jpg 768w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-1536x996.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-624x405.jpg 624w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/webRNS-Birmingham-Letter-King2-600x389.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text edd-enabled\"><span class=\"caption\">Mugshots of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons)<\/span><span class=\"credit\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For example, a reference to English preacher and author John Bunyan in the final version \u2014 \u201cI will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.\u201d\u2014 is not in the draft version that was among the papers belonging to the Burgesses. It was added in a paragraph where King embraces being described as an extremist and says, before and after the Bunyan reference, that reformer Martin Luther and Abraham Lincoln could share that descriptor.<\/p>\n<p>In the final version, the letter says, \u201cas Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.\u201d In the version now located at the seminary, it refers to the theologian by saying, \u201cas Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Floyd, who said she was particularly grateful to tell her grandfather, who is in his 90s, about the found draft, pointed to another language change in the section where King discusses laws that are just or unjust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere it talks about, \u2018It gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s the quote in ours \u2014 in the University of Alabama version, it\u2019s quoted as \u2018It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, and the segregated a false sense of inferiority,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4262418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 750px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4262418\" src=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-427x285.jpg 427w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-807x538.jpg 807w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-King-Letter1-380x253.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text edd-enabled\"><span class=\"caption\">The Bishop Payne Library on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary, Monday, June 1, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (RNS photo\/Adelle M. Banks)<\/span><span class=\"credit\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the discovery of the letter itself, and its differences from other versions, archives staffers have received requests for it to be shared with students taking ethics and biblical studies at the seminary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have said that they would like to have it brought in as examples of text criticism for their classes,\u201d Waits said.<\/p>\n<p>As archive staff members have reviewed different drafts, they have also noticed that the University of Alabama draft was addressed to seven clergy while the one held by the Burgesses includes eight addressees. Two leaders to whom the letter was addressed in those two drafts were Episcopal bishops who had graduated from VTS.<\/p>\n<p>Waits is conducting historical research and Floyd is doing contextual analysis for a joint article comparing different drafts of King\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n<p>How the draft ended up in the Burgesses\u2019 papers is \u201ca mystery\u201d at this point, said Waits.<\/p>\n<p>Another unknown is the location of the final page of the document found in the collection.<\/p>\n<p>At the seminary archives\u2019 request, Swann sent the school a copy of the page of the version sold in 2021, and it\u2019s included in the binder with a disclaimer in red letters that \u201cwe cannot confirm that the content is the same as the page missing from the copy held by the AAEHC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of the seminary, said he was \u201coverwhelmed\u201d when he learned from Temple about the discovered draft of the letter, which he called an \u201cextraordinary message of the fundamental dignity of all people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a text just for then, it\u2019s a text for now,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we have a real obligation to tap afresh into that tradition for which Martin Luther King Jr. was an exemplar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The seminary, where 38% of the 2026 student body were people of color, is about 10 miles from Washington, D.C. At its recent commencement, a Master of Arts student was the first to graduate from a new <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2019\/09\/10\/reparations-fund-announced-by-va-seminary-with-buildings-constructed-by-slaves\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reparations Program<\/a> that benefits descendants of enslaved people who worked on the campus and constructed some of its buildings.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2013\/04\/12\/fifty-years-later-church-leaders-respond-to-kings-birmingham-jail-letter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fifty years later, church leaders respond to King\u2019s \u201cBirmingham Jail\u201d letter<\/a><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/06\/04\/draft-of-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail-found-at-virginia-seminary-archives\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (RNS) \u2014 Within a red binder, each of its typewritten pages encased in plastic sleeves, sits an early draft of the famous letter written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as he was held in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. Ten pages that once were considered for the 1963 \u201cLetter from Birmingham [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}