I have taken the time to get my MLK book, "Why We Can't Wait," which is his letter from a Birmingham Jail, as well as his last book, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community." Now I can take the time to do an analysis of what @hilaryr and @ninaturner said on @ChrisCuomo 1/5
While I listened intently to what @hilaryr and @ninaturner both said, Nina was far more correct than Hilary was on what MLK said in that book. First, in the 6,918-word essay MLK only uses the word silence once. This is what he wrote: "We will have to repent in this generation 2/5
"not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people." That's it. @hilaryr was wrong to say MLK was speaking of the "silence of white moderates." That's just not true. He was very specific about white moderates 3/5
On seven different occasions in the essay, MLK spoke clearly and directly about the "white moderate." This is what @ninaturner was talking about, and what @hilaryr got wrong. MLK wrote the essay on April 16, 1963. Yet four years later in "Chaos or Community," he was saying 4/5
"White Americans left the Negro on the ground and in devastating numbers walked off with the aggressor. It appeared that the white segregationist and the ordinary white citizen had more in common with one another than either had with the Negro." @hilaryr @ninaturner 5/5
MLK also wrote in Chaos Or ComunNegroes fheated, especially in th, while many whites felt that the Negroes had gained so much it was
