Ping and Echo: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Welcome to Ping and Echo, a daily newsletter that links to one amazing podcast episode that is guaranteed to be a great listen for kids and their families. Each newsletter includes links to articles, videos and activities related to the podcast so you can turn every episode into an adventure.
Today’s podcast episode is from This Day In Esoteric Political History, a podcast that “takes one moment, big or small, from that day in the past and explores how it might inform our present.” On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In the episode, Jody Avirgan, Nicole Hemmer, and Jamelle Bouie discuss the letter and the importance of MLK’s call to white clergy to reject moderation and to understand the role of - and the urgent need for - nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;” King writes, “it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Podcast: This Day In Esoteric Political History
Episode: Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
URL: https://radiopublic.com/this-day-in-esoteric-political-hi-GOXQA1/s1!58c2e
Length: 10 minutes
🧐 You Should Know
I’ll always give you a heads up if there is anything in the podcast that might surprise or worry kids. Nothing to worry about here.
💡 Try This
After you listen you can build on this episode with the links and activities below:
Lesson Plan for Teaching MLK’s Letter - MLK Institute
Listen to First Hand Stories about the Birmingham Campaign - CSPAN
Lesson Plan on the Philosophy of Nonviolence - Facing History
🔎 Explore More
Read up on the history behind this episode with these links:
Read MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Atlantic
Close Reading of Text: MLK "Letter from Birmingham Jail" - PBS
We met students and staff from the MLK Freedom Center in Oakland, California, a few years ago and were amazed by the work they do around nonviolence in education and youth civic engagement. They have a lot of resources on their website - check out their recommended readings in the training session and online lectures in the Articles section.
The name Ping and Echo comes from sonar technology which relies on sending out “pings” and receiving back “echos” to discover the world around you. You can send us pictures of the art and activities created by your kids. Email them to pingandecho@gmail.com and we’ll post all your echos on our Instagram and our Twitter page.
Thanks for lending us your ears and your inbox.
Josh, Toby, and Ruby