In Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday.

[undergroundrailroad]

Letter From Birmingham Jail

April 16, 1963

MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

continued

[FrenchieCat]

1. Such a great Man!

So much still to do!

[undergroundrailroad]

3. FrenchieCat, I agree. I mean look at your excellent photo analogy.

Things don't look very different for some reason. I wonder why?

The "dream" ? It's delayed Dr. King. :cry: But I still have hope.

To us Frenchie. Happy Birthday to the King.


Undergroundrailroad

[msgadget]

4. Yes, a lot more to do

and, on this day, I also pay tribute to those who are working within communities to make things better. We may not have a national leader but there are a lot of unsung heros doing Dr. King proud.

[undergroundrailroad]

5. Very well said msgadget! Happy Dr. King Day.

Undergroundrailroad :hug:

[FrenchieCat]

2. Oh No!

My husband just came home to tell me that the Gropernator of California is slated to appear at my church tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for Martin Luther King's Birthday.

He and the Mayor of Oakland (Jerry Brown) are supposed to show up....along with a massive audience, protestors, the media and the secret service.

My husband, who's normally in the pulpit as our pastor's personal assistant is not even allowed into the pulpit this time. Something about "security" and the "SS" (Secret Service).

I might go.....but I would have to stand with the protestors on this one. I cannot stand Arnorld!

Politics, schmolicics.....The once-per-year kiss (apart from an election year) on the ass of Black folks is coming a little too close for me. I hate the photo-ops, etc. I guess that our pastor thinks it's a good idea. I will have to find out why he thinks so.

[GOPFighter]

6. On April 16, 1963...

...I was just another white kid two months from graduating high school in a small northern Indiana town. My parents were conservative fundies and I was too. Our town was about 18% black, but you wouldn't know it from the ratio of whites to blacks in the high school, for the "ghetto" really was on the other side of the tracks.

We had our share of assholes in my school, kids that bragged loudly about driving at high speed down a street in the black section of town yelling the N-word. These insecure cretins also got their rocks off hurling pumpkins at Amish buggies at night (one died in a crash as a result). Most of us despised these swaggering jerks (mainly because they were bullies and we had all been targets at one time or another), but it didn't matter to the targets of their need to humiliate. They judged us all, I'm sure, by the actions of those few.

I was blissfully unaware of Dr. King's words at the time they were written, after all, Paul Harvey insisted that the right to be racist was a personal right and that the government had no right to trample on those personal rights, and Paul Harvey was listened to by everyone I knew.

Yeah, it all made sense to me at the time, yet something kept nagging at my mind. Somehow the TV footage of how the south reacted to the integration of their schools was a cruel and unnecessary reaction to something that seemed reasonable to me. After all, our schools were integrated and no harm had been done.

After high school I worked in a factory with KKK members, I went into the Air Force and befriended blacks and whites who didn't give a damn about skin color, then I entered college where I took two semesters of Afro-American history, and here is where I finally read and studied the words of Martin Luther King.

Much has happened in the 41 years since Dr. King wrote that letter from the Birmingham jail. I think Dr. King would be fairly pleased to see the progress that has been made in some larger metropolitan cities like Washington,DC, and inner suburbs like mine where neighborhoods and schools are fully integrated and race relations are to the point where blacks and whites work, socialize, date and marry with virtually no regard to race. In my hometown however, the black population is still significant, but you would be hard pressed to find black clerks in your store or serving you food. If anything, race relations are worse there, not better.

On the day of his birthday, my heart aches at the loss of a leader like Dr. King. Will we ever see another?

:(

[undergroundrailroad]

7. No, not like him. But we will see another.

I really like your post GOP Fighter and it's honesty. I agree with several points you made and, yes, I think Dr. King would be pleased to see the progress that has been made. He deserves credit for that progress and I'm happy that we have a holiday in his honor.

Thanks for the contribution and Happy Dr. King Day.

Undergroundrailroad