Dr. King succinctly explains in the first chapter of the book that “three hundred years of humiliation, abuse, and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper” (2000, p. 3). The revolution he led had been building up for such a long time that when it finally became clear to the American public, it appeared as an explosion of emotion and defiance. Why We Can’t Wait walks through the answer to segregation. What could have become a violent fight for freedom was instead a peaceful movement that proved just as successful. Dr. King highlights the historical events that led to that answer and why it needed to happen the way it did through nonviolence and civil disobedience—actions of love that Jesus probably would have stood behind.
In hindsight the build-up to 1963 is obvious; the tension had grown rather than diminished since the Emancipation Proclamation as new laws were enacted but slowly carried out or blatantly ignored. The centennial of the Proclamation was approaching, and the lack of follow-through by both Republicans and Democrats, in both the South and the North, brought disappointment, frustration, and anger. President Kennedy promised changes to housing discrimination but did not sign them into law until two years into his term and was not specific enough for it to bring actual change (p. 8). The black population’s faith in the government waned as they saw countries in Africa rebelling after World War II, the nearly nuclear war of the 1950s, and the Great Depression that lingered even longer for them than for the struggling white public. They were witnessing fighting and determination around the world without experiencing any liberty of their own. The struggle was a daily reality for the individual, and that fa...
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...and assertiveness, he never strayed from preaching nonviolence and love.
The photograph on the cover of the Signet Classics edition is of Martin Luther King, Jr. standing in front of a pair of microphones with a young black boy behind him. The child looks fearful but resolute. This image was likely intentional. The demand for civil rights spanned across generations. Grandparents participated for their grandkids, and teenagers participated for their parents. It was done out of love, and that love shone even brighter through the violent response. Jesus’ message was a message of love, and Dr. King was able to live that out while demanding freedom from his oppressor. The hurt and dehumanization of the past could not be ignored any longer, and the world was fortunately given Dr. King and the nonviolent revolution to bring change in a way that reflects the love of Christ.
Throughout his preface of the book titled Why We Can’t Wait, which entails the unfair social conditions of faultless African Americans, Martin Luther King employs a sympathetic allegory, knowledge of the kids, and a change in tone to prevail the imposed injustice that is deeply rooted in the society—one founded on an “all men are created equal” basis—and to evoke America to take action.
“Hence, segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”… Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the greatest speakers in all of history wrote these words in his letter from Birmingham Jail (King 48). His great use of rhetoric affected largely the freeing of an entire race. During his work in the Civil Rights Movement, he visited a small town called Birmingham in Alabama, and wrote one of his most rhetorically compelling letters there. In this letter, he used historical evidence, scriptural references, descriptive vocabulary, and great organization of points to respond to grievances raised against his movement: that he should wait, that he was breaking laws, that his peace brought on violence, and that his activities were extreme.
Historians offer different perceptions of the significance of Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington. Without examining this event within its historical context the media publicity and iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech can easily overshadow progress that was already underway in America. It was insisted by prominent civil rights activist Ella Baker, ‘the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.’ What is important not to overlook is the significant change that took place in the United States during the previous 100 years. Such that, many influential figures in support of racial equality opposed the March. The Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy in 1963 was already in the legislative process. Furthermore the Federal Government was now reasserting power over the entire of the United States by enforcing a policy of desegregation. It is important to note that these changes all took place less than one hundred years after the Thirteenth Amendment in 1965 abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth amendment in 1968 acknowledged the rights of former slaves to be acknowledged as U.S citizens. With this level of progress Kennedy was against the March going ahead due to the argument that it was limited in what it could achieve. Today, King’s 1963 Speech is viewed as one of the most iconic speeches in history. However, was it a key turning point in African Americans achieving racial equality? Federal endorsement would suggest yes after decades of southern states being able to subvert the Federal law designed to break down segregation. This support built upon the corner stones of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments in the nineteenth century. Therefore looking at the national status of black Americans fro...
King introduces two phases of the Negroes struggle: “the first began in the 1950’s when Negroes slammed the door shut on submission and subservice,” and “when Negroes assertively
In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. During his campaign he had promised to lead the country down the right path with the civil rights movement. This campaign promise had brought hope to many African-Americans throughout the nation. Ever since Lincoln, African-Americans have tended to side with the democrats and this election was no different. The Kennedy administration had noticed that the key to the presidency was partially the civil rights issue. While many citizens were on Kennedy’s side, he had his share of opposition. Malcolm X differed on the view of the President and observed that the civil rights movement wasn’t happening at the speed Kennedy had pledged. Malcolm X possessed other reasons for his dislike of John F. Kennedy and his brothers, especially Robert. The Kennedy government stood for racial liberalism and Malcolm X argued their true intentions for the civil rights movement weren’t in the best interest of the black population. This tension streamed both ways. John Kennedy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation felt that Malcolm X had become a threat to national security. James Baldwin has written essays that have included the repeated attacks on the white liberal and supports Malcolm in many of his theories and actions.
The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Bill of Rights, which were made to protect the citizenship of the African-American, thereby granting him the protection that each American citizen gained in the Constitution, there were no means to enforce these civil rights. People found ways to go around them, and thus took away the rights of African-Americans. In 1919, racial tensions between the black and white communities in Chicago erupted, causing a riot to start. This resulted from the animosity towards the growing black community of Chicago, which provided competition for housing and jobs. Mistrust between the police and black community in Chicago only lent violence as an answer to their problems, leading to a violent riot. James Baldwin, an essayist working for true civil rights for African-Americans, gives first-hand accounts of how black people were mistreated, and conveys how racial tensions built up antagonism in his essays “Notes of a Native Son,” and “Down at the Cross.”
Racial inequality is once again on the forefront of Americans ' minds, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has become a topic of contentious debate. However, this tension is by no means a new phenomenon, this is the same anger that inspired civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr to rally against the status quo and fight for racial equality. The essay "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by King addresses the same issues of racial inequality, prejudice, and police violence that has given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the 1960 's, the Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation and prevented black Americans from voting were brutally, and blatantly racist policies. Additionally, the penalties for breaking these laws
Kirk, J. (2007). Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement: controversies and debates. Basingstoke New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Back then, it came in the form of slavery, later on, it came in the form of segregation. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” (King. 13). If there was one thing that Dr. King learn, it was that those who oppress will never willingly give up the sense of authority over the minority population, to get it, the victims must fight for it. He knew this because of the quite literal "painful experience" that he and the other freedom-fighters endured to get their equality. By summoning the power of the people, Dr. King hopes to stop the gruesome hate crime along with challenging the morality of the church’s on where their attitude towards the movement. Which unfortunately, they chose to alienate themselves from the fight for equal rights in the names for being by the “law and
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he elaborates on the injustices that were wildly plaguing America in the year 1963. Black people all over the country were being treated unfairly, locked up in prison for false crimes, and refused the great opportunities that white people were so lucky to receive. Before the year 1963, President Abraham Lincoln was the last person to make such an impact in the equal treatment of all people, so for about 100 years, blacks had no one to back them in their fight for equal treatment.
In the 1960s life for African Americans was not the best, yet neither was it the worse. As many African Americans had already experienced the agonizing pain in slavery. In the 60s, the battle for civil rights had defined the decade. All beginning in February of 1960 when four African American students sat down at a “Whites-Only” counter and refused to leave. The uproar began when thousands blocked segregated restaurants and shops across the upper south, which drew the country’s attention to “Jim Crow” laws. There was a movement in Chicago known as the Chicago Freedom Movement which was led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosemary L. Bray, her mother, her abusive father and younger siblings all attended the march which demanded changes like equality for schools in the City of Chicago. In this memoir Unafraid of the Dark held many phenomenal
The year is 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. sits in a Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, arrested for leading a peaceful Civil Rights protest, his leadership shining bright in each stroke of his pen on paper. In contrast to the Henry’s, MLK conveys his message via written word, preaching peaceful conflict resolution, rather than calling for bloody war. Facing injustice in the form of racial discrimination, MLK responds to the criticisms of the white Birmingham Clergy who called his “non-violent direct action” (sit ins and marches) “unwise and untimely.” MLK demonstrates leadership through his calm, patient, and factual arguments, explaining the struggles faced by the Civil Rights movements due to injustices from church leadership and “moderate whites.” Addressing the clergy’s complaint of the “untimely” nature of his protest, MLK writes, “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed,” addressing the innate difficulties of his work. Here, MLK acknowledges the challenging nature of seeking such a grand social change, but he also provides factual examples of successful large-scale movements like “the nations of Asia and Africa… moving at jet like speed toward political independence.” His continual references to fact, citing Supreme court case rulings to support his statements on segregation,
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
In the book Why We Can’t Wait, by Martin Luther King, Jr., the struggle for African-American equality is kicked into high gear when a Civil Rights leader, King, takes action through his nonviolent resistance movement to display the issues of racial segregation and discrimination for the whole nation to be aware. In the year 1963, King introduces his readers to the challenges he faced in one of the most segregated cities in America: Birmingham, Alabama. Ran by a segregationist by the name of Bull Connor, the city is dominated by white supremacy and suppresses all the unconstructive, insufferable prejudice towards African Americans that occurs in the streets. Concerning the movement towards civil rights equality, Martin Luther King, Jr. presented
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...