Jan 18
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an open letter from his cell in Alabama on April 16, 1963. It was directed at white clergyman who agreed with his cause, but not with his demonstration tactics of non-violent protest. They believed that civil rights could only be won in the courts and not in the streets. Below are (my) key excerpts from the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" originally published on May 19, 1963 in the New York Post Sunday Magazine without King's permission.
.this 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an open letter from his cell in Alabama on April 16, 1963. It was directed at white clergyman who agreed with his cause, but not with his demonstration tactics of non-violent protest. They believed that civil rights could only be won in the courts and not in the streets. Below are (my) key excerpts from the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" originally published on May 19, 1963 in the New York Post Sunday Magazine without King's permission.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."-=-"…freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. " -=-"…when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are)…"-=-
“You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood….I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
-=-"Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?" -=-
read the full letter
