Question

Read this passage from King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” What is the main idea the reader must infer from the supporting details? I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"

Answer 1

The church and its people have not supported the efforts of the Negroes to gain their rights.

Answer 2

The main idea the reader can infer from this passage from King's Letter from Birmingham City Jail is that the rights of the "negros" were achieved without any support. Nor the religious institutions, nor the people as equals helped them to fight for their rights when they had the chance.

This paragraph is a criticism to the society not standing up for the black's rights.