"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. (1963): List 4

Imprisoned in April 1963 for protesting segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter to affirm that nonviolent civil disobedience was essential to achieving the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. Read the full text of the letter here.

This list covers vocabulary in paragraphs 30-39 of the letter.
12 words 187 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. interposition
    the act of putting something between two things
    Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification?
  2. nullification
    doctrine that a state can refuse to recognize a federal law
    Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification?
  3. clarion
    loud and clear
    Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred?
  4. blemish
    mar or impair with a flaw
    Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
  5. nonconformist
    someone who refuses to conform to standards of conduct
    How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
  6. mores
    the conventions embodying the fundamental values of a group
    In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
  7. inextricably
    in a manner incapable of being disentangled or untied
    Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?
  8. status quo
    the existing state of affairs
    Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?
  9. tortuous
    marked by repeated turns and bends
    They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom.
  10. inhumane
    reflecting a lack of pity or compassion
    I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together.
  11. profundity
    intellectual depth; penetrating knowledge
    They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest."
  12. scintillating
    having brief brilliant points or flashes of light
    Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Created on Tue Jun 03 15:46:04 EDT 2025 (updated Tue Jun 03 16:47:48 EDT 2025)

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