The Work
Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. His campaigns of non-violent resistance won voting rights for Black Americans and overturned the ‘Jim Crow’ laws of the American South. In 1963 King, with other Black activists, was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. A group of White clergy wrote a letter condemning King’s methods of non-violent protest, arguing that his ends would be better served by working through proper channels. The Letter from a Birmingham Jail is King’s response to the clergy and, more importantly, his arguments in support of his political methods. It is a foundational text of twentieth century political philosophy.
Speaker
Sir Jonathan Montgomery is Professor of Health Care Law at University College London, Visiting Professor in Bioethics Governance at the University of Oxford, co-chair of the Moral and Ethical Advisory Group within the Department of Health and Social Care, Chair of Oxford University Hospitals NHSFT, and Chair of the Portsmouth Council for Social Responsibility. He has played a leading role in public bioethics in the UK for many years, having previously chaired the Human Genetics Commission, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Health Research Authority. He was awarded a knighthood for services to Bioethics and Health Care Law in the 2019 New Year Honours and elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021.
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