Thread by @AkivaMCohen

It's amazing - and deeply sad - how much of Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail remains true and relevant today. Read the whole thing, not just the easy parts. Some highlights that still speak to me below africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/L…

While confined here ... I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." ... 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 statement ... #MLK

you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." ... I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. ... I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. #MLK

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. ... Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. #MLK

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. #MLK

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. ... There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. #MLK

In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made... As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted #MLK

Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. ...we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we ... could be delayed no longer. #MLK

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. #MLK

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. #MLK

citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But ... I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension ...necessary for growth. #MLK

The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. ...Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue. #MLK

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. ... My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. #MLK

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as [] Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. #MLK

...freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. ...For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." #MLK

We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights... but we still creep ... toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. #MLK

This next part can't be bowdlerized or abridged or split up or fit into 280 character bites. Read every word. #MLK

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. ... You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. #MLK

Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools... One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer [is] there are two types of laws: just and unjust. #MLK

I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." #MLK

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? ... Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. ... #MLK

Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong. #MLK

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out.... One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. #MLK

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. #MLK

I must make two honest confessions to you... 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... #MLK

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 ...the absence of tension to ...the presence of justice #MLK

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; #MLK

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. ... #MLK

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. #MLK

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that ... we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. #MLK

Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed... before it can be cured. #MLK

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? #MLK

We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. #MLK

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. ... Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception ... that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. #MLK

Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. #MLK

We will have to repent... not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God #MLK

...without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time #MLK

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. #MLK

One is a force of complacency... The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. ... I have tried to stand between these two forces, ... For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. #MLK

... If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action... #MLK

and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare. #MLK

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, ...If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. ... #MLK

...So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. ... #MLK

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label... Was not Amos an extremist for justice... #MLK

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? #MLK

... Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. #MLK

I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. #MLK

I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. ... #MLK

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church....
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. #MLK

I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents... all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent #MLK

There was a time when the church was very powerful... In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. #MLK

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. #MLK

Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. #MLK

But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham... We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. #MLK

Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. ...If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. #MLK

We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. #MLK

You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. #MLK

I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; #MLK

if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department. #MLK

It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. #MLK

Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. #MLK

But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. ...they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. #MLK

I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. #MLK

They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. #MLK

They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who ... responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." #MLK

They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. #MLK

One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream #MLK

and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. #MLK

Never before have I written so long a letter... 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? #MLK

Again, read the whole letter. I'm a damn good writer, when I choose to be; I won't approach anything like this level of prose even on my best day. And spend some time today thinking about every aspect of it

Yes, the determined embrace of nonviolence. Yes, also, the failures of "moderates" and those all too willing to sacrifice in the cause of stability - especially when it's someone else being sacrificed. And yes, again, STILL the determined rejection of violence as immoral means

Think hard, most of all, about how to put thought into action. The work is not yet done.

Most importantly, recognize the wisdom of what the Jewish sages wrote roughly 2000 years ago: It may not be our destiny to complete that work; it may be the work of several lifetimes. That doesn't mean we're free to abandon it.

There's work to be done. Do your jobs.