As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his most well - known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars, he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as ''Loving Your Enemies'' and ''Shattered Dreams, '' and he continued to edit the volume after his release. Revised in a fresh new edition, A Gift of Love includes these classic sermons, along with two new sermons. Collectively they present King s fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness, and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change