I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” I don’t believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don’t believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young Negro boys; if you will observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I’m sorry that I can’t join you in your praise for the police department.

Which statement identifies the main idea in this excerpt from “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr.?

I’m sorry that I can’t join you in your praise for the police department. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” if you will observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" is an open letter written on April 16th, 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. While Martin Luther King spent 8 days sentence in jail he wrote the letter to not only address the injustice of his arrest, but to only make a statement on the incompetence of the church, the brutality of the police, but also how despite all of these injustices he is put under, he still writes diplomatically because of his belief of nonviolent resistance.

It is because of these arguments that the statement that identifies the main idea from the excerpt correctly is "I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department." Because it summarizes how the police department treated with injustice the black community but while keeping his diplomacy.