Electoral registration campaigns
The biggest flashpoint was over voter registration. In principle, blacks could vote,
but the Southern states found numerous ways to make it difficult for them to register
as voters: there were few registration offices in black areas; opening hours were
highly restricted; potential voters were intimidated with the connivance of the
authorities – photographs were taken and employers informed; there was often a
tax (poll tax) for registration; there were literacy qualifications.
The most famous, or infamous, set of events took place in 1965 at Selma
(Alabama). In 1963 just 1 per cent of blacks in Selma were registered to vote. After
winning the Nobel Peace Prize (December 1964) King decided that Selma should be
the focus of a campaign. After various marches, arrests and considerable violence
on the part of the authorities, events came to a head on 7 March 1965 with a march
across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma (Pettus was a Confederate General) where
protestors were met by police and state troopers who ordered them to disperse. They
then attacked the protestors; pictures of their actions were transmitted across the
world. What followed was complex, involving decisions such as whether to accept
legal injunctions on marches, but eventually the Voting Rights Act (1965) was passed,
with the number of registered black voters rising from 23 per cent in 1964 to 61 per
cent in 1969. Although it is clear that the Civil Rights Movement affected the general
political debate, it is a matter of debate whether individualcampaigns, such as that
at Selma, were causally responsible for particularpieces of legislation, such as the
Voting Rights Act. We now turn to King’s justification of his actions.
Martin Luther King, ‘Letter from Birmingham City
Jail’ (1963)
King’s Letter was addressed to fellow – mainly Southern white – clergymen, some
of whom had criticised King’s campaign of civil disobedience. Given that Rawls
argues civil disobedience is an appeal to the majority, it is important to recognise
the twoaudiences King addresses: the clergy are the explicit addressees, but the
majority of US citizens are the implicit addressees. Although he does not separate
them out we can discern both Christian and secular arguments in the Letter; of
course, the great majority of Americans define themselves as Christian, but King
communicates awareness that Christian arguments are not sufficient to justify civil
disobedience. In setting out King’s argument, we follow his narrative of events.
Obviously his account should not be treated uncritically, but since our prime concern
is with how he justified his actions from his perspective, the veracity of the historical
details can be left to historians.
King sets out ‘four basic steps’ in a campaign of civil disobedience (1991: 69):
- the collection of facts to determine whether injustice is ‘alive’;
- negotiation;
- self-purification;
- direct action.
The action that resulted in King’s imprisonment – and the occasion for the Letter- were illegal demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. These were directed against
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