“Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written and first published before the rest of
Why We Can’t Wait—in fact, the letter itself was what led Dr. King to write the book in the first place. As such, Dr. King rehashes some of the points he has already made in the book. In this case, he gives the white clergymen a brief overview of why, exactly, the civil rights movement centered in Birmingham in 1963, explaining that it became abundantly clear that the city’s white power structures wouldn’t work toward racial equality without receiving some kind of push.