(Friday, April 12, 1963, Good Friday; during the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–68)) — Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and jailed today in Birmingham, Alabama, charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit for his part in the Birmingham campaign, a planned non-violent protest against racial segregation by Birmingham’s city government and downtown retailers.

During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”; he was released on bond on April 20.