Date: June 17, 2026
Since the discovery of an early typeset draft of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail in early March, the priorities of the archives staff have shifted to researching the origins and provenance of the document now in our possession. Nick, our intern, continued working on Bishop John and Esther Burgess’ papers, which contained the Letter. Riley Temple contacted SCLC leaders, including Ambassador Andrew Young, to learn more about how King’s theological masterpiece was edited and produced. I began reaching out to other repositories to locate an expert who could authenticate the document, while Kayla Floyd conducted textual comparisons between known drafts and our own. The Burgess version contained numerous variations, including differences in quotations, sentence structure, and phrasing. These changes are what I find most exciting, because they show how a modern epistle was created.
As Dr. King sat in that jail cell, he began to pen theological and spiritual instructions for the wider church. He wrote on the margins of the newspaper and on any scrap paper he could find. The text was smuggled out by Clarence B. Jones and given to the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker. Walker oversaw the creation of typescripts by his 21-year-old secretary, Willie Pearl Mackey. King then revised these drafts, producing multiple typescripts. Eventually, the American Friends Service Committee published the Letter, and King issued a further revision in his 1964 book Why We Can’t Wait.
Reflecting on the evolution of the Letter recalls the complex ways scripture is created, preserved, and transmitted. It is a bold claim, if not false, to say one reads scripture exactly as the original author intended—let alone as the Holy Spirit intended. Scripture comes to us through the lived experience of human beings seeking to understand the world and their relationship with the divine. It is carried through oral tradition, scribal recording, reproduction, editing, and institutional approval.
I do not know if King set out to write one of the most significant theological works of the twentieth century when he first put graphite to newspaper. What I am certain of is that a man with a prophetic vision and a divine call to justice wrote down his lived experience of humanity and his understanding of the divine. His words were then carried by his colleagues and followers—transcribed, edited, preserved, and made available for all who wish to learn what King heard from the Spirit.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail was not dictated from on high, transmitted by a heavenly messenger, or carried down a mountain on stone tablets. It was born in persecution, drawn from Dr. King’s memory and soul. It reflects his life as a Black man from Georgia, his education at Morehouse, and his study of theology. It is rooted in his engagement with the Hebrew prophets and the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth. Much like the ancient sages who wrote our scriptures, King drew from the fullness of his life and his walk with God to give us his epistle; and, like those sacred texts, his words come alive in our souls when the Spirit breathes upon them.
Denton Waits ’25
Seminary Archivist