The Root: Fifty years after King wrote "Letter From Birmingham Jail," a man arrested with him recalls the moment.

The Rev. Jonathan McPherson 

(courtesy of the Rev. Jonathan McPherson)

The Root

What It Was Like to Be Jailed With MLK

Fifty years after King wrote "Letter From Birmingham Jail," a man arrested with him recalls the moment.

By: Denise Stewart | Posted: April 15, 2013

(The Root) -- The Rev. Jonathan McPherson went to jail for the first time in his life on Friday, April 12, 1963. It was Good Friday in Birmingham, Ala. Blacks on that day were defying an injunction outlawing protests, and under the leadership of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, they continued mounting a fierce but nonviolent challenge to segregation. For McPherson, King, Shuttlesworth and others, that challenge led to a police-wagon ride and lockup in cold cells with concrete floors.

McPherson was about 29 at the time and on the faculty at historically black Miles College. McPherson's father bailed him out the next day. King was locked up longer, in isolation, and there he wrote his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," responding to white clergy who had questioned the need for and method of protest in Birmingham.

The letter was first made public on April 16, 1963. Exactly 50 years later, on April 16, 2013, McPherson joins several others in a progressive reading of that letter at Miles College.

McPherson, who has written a book about his experiences, is now a 79-year-old pastor and funeral home owner. He spoke to The Root about how not enough has changed since his days in the civil rights movement and what it was like being jailed with King. He also shared some choice words about today's black clergy and the GOP.

The Root: What was it like going to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

The Rev. John McPherson: When we got out of the wagon and were going into the jail, it was already crowded with others who had been arrested and jailed for marching. We could hear them singing. We knew this was something we had to do.

When I asked an elderly gentleman in the cell with me why he was there, he said: "I'm here 'cause I want to see what the end is gonna be." The man was a regular in the marches. His name was Brother Meadows. He was in his 70s or maybe 80s, but he said he was going to stick with it all the way. If he had lived longer, he would have seen this city elect its first black mayor in 1979. A while later, he would have seen our first African-American president, Barack Obama.