Speaker 1: Right now, It's time for the way Black History Fact.
Speaker 1: In today's way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads.
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Speaker 1: going to share the letter from a Birmingham jail. This
Speaker 1: was written on April sixteen, nineteen sixty three. Doctor King writes,
Speaker 1: my dear fellow clergyman, while confined here in the Birmingham
Speaker 1: City Jail, I came across your recent statement calling our
Speaker 1: present activities unwise and untimely. Seldom, if ever, do I
Speaker 1: pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. But
Speaker 1: since I felt that you are men of genuine goodwill
Speaker 1: and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like
Speaker 1: to answer your statement in what I hope will be
Speaker 1: patient and reasonable terms. Birmingham is possibly the most thoroughly
Speaker 1: segregated city in the United States. It's ugly record of
Speaker 1: police brutality is known in every section of this country.
Speaker 1: On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to
Speaker 1: negotiate with the city fathers, but political leaders consistently refused
Speaker 1: to engage in good faith negotiations. Then came the opportunity
Speaker 1: last September to talk with some of the leaders of
Speaker 1: the economic community. In these negotiating sessions, certain promises were
Speaker 1: made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove
Speaker 1: the humiliating racial signs from the stores. On the basis
Speaker 1: of these promises, Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the
Speaker 1: Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a
Speaker 1: moratorium on any type of demonstrations. As weeks and months unfolded,
Speaker 1: we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise.
Speaker 1: So we had no alternative except that of preparing for
Speaker 1: direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as
Speaker 1: a means of laying our case before the conscious of
Speaker 1: the local and national community. We started having workshops on
Speaker 1: non violence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, are you
Speaker 1: able to accept the blows without retaliating? Are you able
Speaker 1: to endure the ordeals of jail? You may well ask
Speaker 1: why direct action? Why sit ins, marches, etc. Is a
Speaker 1: negotiation a better path? You are exactly right in your
Speaker 1: call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action.
Speaker 1: Non violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis
Speaker 1: and establish such creative tension that a community that has
Speaker 1: consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.
Speaker 1: My friends, I must say to you that we have
Speaker 1: not made a s single gain in civil rights without
Speaker 1: legal and non violent pressure. History is the long and
Speaker 1: tragic story of the fact that the privileged groups seldom
Speaker 1: give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral
Speaker 1: light and give up their unjust posture, but as Reynold
Speaker 1: Nieuber has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.
Speaker 1: I guess it is easy for those who have never
Speaker 1: felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, wait, but
Speaker 1: when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and
Speaker 1: fathers at will, and drown your sisters and brothers at whim,
Speaker 1: When you have seen hatefield policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and
Speaker 1: even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity, When
Speaker 1: you see that a vast majority of your twenty million
Speaker 1: Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in
Speaker 1: the midst of an affluent society, When you suddenly find
Speaker 1: your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek
Speaker 1: to explain to your six year old daughter why she
Speaker 1: can't go to the public amusement park it has just
Speaker 1: been advertised on television. And see the tears welling up
Speaker 1: in her little eyes when she is told fun town
Speaker 1: is closed to colored children, And see the depressing clouds
Speaker 1: of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky,
Speaker 1: And see her begin to distort her little personality by
Speaker 1: unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people. When you have
Speaker 1: to concoct and answer for a five year old son
Speaker 1: who is asking, in agonizing pathos, Daddy, why do white
Speaker 1: people treat colored people so mean? When you take a
Speaker 1: cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night
Speaker 1: after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because
Speaker 1: no motel will accept you, then you will understand why
Speaker 1: we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time
Speaker 1: when the cup of endurance runs over and men are
Speaker 1: no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of injustice,
Speaker 1: where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs,
Speaker 1: you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. I hope
Speaker 1: this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also
Speaker 1: hope the circumstances will soon make it possible for me
Speaker 1: to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or
Speaker 1: as a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman
Speaker 1: and a Christian brother. Let us hope that the dark
Speaker 1: clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and the
Speaker 1: deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear
Speaker 1: drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow, the
Speaker 1: radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our
Speaker 1: great nation with all of their scintillating beauty