Jack Warren; Policeman Involved in Martin Luther King Jr. Arrest

Jack Warren, 73, the deputy police chief whose arrest of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 led to King’s famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Warren was a police captain in the Alabama city when he relayed the orders from then-Public Safety Commissioner Eugene (Bull) Conner for police to use fire hoses and attack dogs against civil rights marchers. Later, Warren personally arrested King and took him to the Birmingham Jail, where King wrote his letter that put new fire into the movement. Although he arrested King, the white officer was considered a friend by many black community leaders and was awarded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award in 1982. “We always knew that Chief Warren found those things distasteful, even as he was giving the orders,” said Rev. Abraham Woods, president of the SCLC’s Birmingham chapter. “We considered him, truly, just about our only friend in the department back then,” Woods said. “And years later, he continued to demonstrate his commitment to equality and fair treatment for everyone.” In Birmingham on March 5 after a heart attack.