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

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