of the letter, King is justifying his nonviolent campaign for civil rights to eight white Southern clergyman who question if he is going too far.

Here is an example summary:

In the sixth paragraph, King notes different aspects in which Birmingham is one of the most racist cities in the United States: police brutality, segregation, unjust courts, and the high number of bombings of black homes and churches. King states his campaign has gone through all four steps of nonviolence: fact finding, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. Nothing, King says, has worked.

Paragraph six's text is as follows:

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.