In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April 16th 1963) Martin Luther King, Jr defends fighting racism with non-violent protest.
Famous lines:
“one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. “
King was arrested on Good Friday 1963 during protests in Birmingham, Alabama against Jim Crow. Police chief Bull Connor had protesters beat up – unarmed men, women and children! He turned dogs and fire hoses on them.
In an open letter, eight White Alabama religious leaders said the protests were “unwise”, “untimely”, “extreme”, led to “hatred and violence”, that the police were “calm”. Blacks should obey the law and patiently seek change through the courts.
King said one has a moral duty to disobey unjust laws. Like the Boston Tea Party, the protesters were heroes of US democracy. And, if not for them, Whites would be faced with the hatred and violence of Black nationalists.
King on “patience” (formatting mine):
“Perhaps 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 hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters;
- when you see the vast majority of your 20 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 that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to coloured children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people;
- when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat coloured people so mean?”;
- when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you;
- when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “coloured”;
- when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs”;
- when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments;
- when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” –
then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- Full text:
- A Call for Unity – the open letter (519 words)
- Letter from Birmingham Jail (6,926 words)
- Martin Luther King
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Birmingham protest
- The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing – later that year in Birmingham
- Angela Davis
- Condoleezza Rice
- James Baldwin in 1963:
- Malcolm X – Black nationalist
- Message to the Grassroots – 1963
- Jim Crow
- Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
- White Jesus
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I couldn’t even imagine the terror Black people lived through.
I was influenced by Black run preschools (run by the Black Panthers first and then by the NOI) so the expectation of equality and justice was always present.
My grandmother helped integrate a Southern nursing program because she had her son die because white hospitals wouldn’t admit dying Black people.
I’m pretty sure most Blacks who post on this site have been; the first Black, the only Black and/or the good Black many times in their lives.
These days we have more tools than just the good conscience and pity of an oppressive group of people.
These days there is little excuse to be a ‘victim’ of racism.
@ LoM – I’m currently watching your boy Colbert and his True History themed show. BLM founder, Q,…. Seems to be the only late-night host to step up this year.
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Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
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@ Kiwi – Really? NOTHING has changed in 50 years?
The killing of a Black person then wouldn’t have made the news. These days, social media gets the word out and to a targeted audience before a network could put a production team together.
Who, fifty years ago, would have gotten $4mil, 12 scholarships and a memorial?
MLK might be leading the BLM movement and later the Occupy movement (Civil Rights, Poor People’s Campaign) if he were young and alive today.
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@Kiwi
I agree. As Linda puts it, same sh*t different day.
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the war on drugs and cointelpro ushered the rise of the federal agency and policy as opposed to even the law of the land like i have been saying it can be there and one degree separated
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also posse comitatus is being circumvented with the urban combat police in every major city i mean in prison the guards have bean bag guns and shit why isnt non lethal suppression used as arrest and detainment tactics im just sayin
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oops cursing sorry
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Folks in this country may honor and worship whomever they choose to. More importantly, it behooves you to know more intimately who you are honoring. Martin Luther King was not only a womanizer and a sell-out; he was also a false prophet.
Jeremiah 23:25-28 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?”
He was the leading member of the “Big Six”. This group was comprised of Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. The so-called Civil Rights movement was fronted by the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership. This Council was essentially made up of white philanthropists who donated money to the “Big Six” and give them the appearance as having authority over the movement. It was a brilliant move by white folks in order to tone down the bellicose and militancy of the up and coming younger generation at that time. This so-called Council was charged with wrestling away the younger movement’s aggressiveness and turning down the volume of their collective voices, such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
There primary purpose was to have the Civil Rights movement weaken and usurp the idea to, “March on Washington” from a much more angry and determined younger group of black people and organizations to eradicate segregation and other social related issues.
Of course, Pres. Kennedy and politicians wanted no part in a group of angry Negroes in Washington in full throttle conducting a contemporary revolt and demanding a real change in social conditions. They had to give up something. Well, on one hand, the government gave us the so-called Civil Rights Act. On the other hand, the “Big Six” reportedly divided amongst themselves between $600k – $800k for performing superbly their Uncle Tommy roles.
NOTE: In August of 2015, the Black Lives Matter movement vehemently rejected the Democratic Party’s support. Perhaps this was an attempt by the DNC to weaken the strength of the movement and to siphon and direct the votes of black folks directly into a black hole. No doubt, the same thing would’ve happened to the BLM movement as mentioned above, had they accepted the party’s offer.
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@UglyBlackJohn said: “These days there is little excuse to be a ‘victim’ of racism.”
Are you serious?? Well then, if you are, I wholeheartedly encourage you to send a memo to the parents of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Barbara Dawson, Renisha McBride, Eric Harris, Samuel DuBose, Tamir Rice and many, many others and inform them that the questionable death of their loved one was NOT the victim of racism.
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@ Uglyblackjohn
Not much has changed in 50 years. Black people still have higher unemployment and infant mortality rates. Black people are still being murdered (lynched) in the streets with impunity. Black people are incarcerated at even higher rates than 50 years ago. The racism that Dr. King was fighting against is very much alive and well; just more insidious. The overt racists have traded in their Klan outfits for police uniforms, judges’ robes, teaching jobs…you get where I’m going with this.
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@ blakksage – They were the more easily controlled alternative.
Think about the recent Mizzou hunger strike/protest. No one cared about a bunch of effete nerds. The only reason they ‘succeeded’ (and why other protests were largely ignored or forgotten) was because they had some hard brotha’s getting their back. No one feared a soft-azz protest – they only responded to those who could disrupt the status quo.
Malcolm scared white folks to loving MLK.
@ Kiwi – Of course my opinions vary from some when it comes to being a victim.
What in the heck is a ‘micro-agression’ anyway? Something that causes no real harm?
Was it you that commented on another thread that your brother who did all the ‘cool’ things was still spat upon by the actual cool kids? I wish someone would purse their lips even thinking about it. If your ‘cool’ brother accepted that type of victimization then we have nothing to say to one another.
I KNOW people died for the recognition of their God-given human rights.
But no. I’m with Malcom in recognizing that power is only taken from the powerful through violence (Haiti). Power is given by those with a changed conscience.
No one feared MLK – they feared the Panthers and Borther Malcolm.
@ V8 – It was more efficacious to get the young into college majoring in African-American Studies programs and TALKING about change than it was to deal with any real Black Power movement.
The way around those government programs you mentioned is by keeping a very low profile – which Civil Rights leaders could not afford to do.
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@ubj i disagree. For me the takeaway is you will be shot over the status quo.
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That ‘policy’ also obviates any form of being a political prisoner too!
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And its just a book club until its public anyhow.
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Interesting to see the comments of the white Alabama religious leaders from that time. It resonates in the meme circulating in wingnut circles today that President Obama has made race relations worse than ever before. My response to those people is that race relations have always been bad — way worse than most white people realize — but previously white America was mostly oblivious to this. Under President Obama it has become somewhat okay for black people to express how they really feel.
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@ blakksage – I went to 47 funerals last year of kids killed by other Black kids.
While tragic – those killings you’ve listed have little affect on my own life.
My rental houses are set aside for single moms, the elderly and those released from prison who are trying to come up. Most days I have to tell kids that while their hood uniform (jeans, white tee, J’s, gold teeth and tats) may keep them safe as part of the herd in the hood, that it does not translate well to the mall. That the image they are trying to adopt identifies them as being inferior when it comes to the po-po. I know enough dope-boys and bosses that I can walk the hood with no fear. I serve on enough committees that I know enough judges and police higher-ups that I can get community service instead of incarceration for first offenders who may just have gotten caught-up.
When I first moved here I’d sometimes chill on the corner drinking a 40 with the guys on the block.
I inherited my grandmother’s red Caddy with the gold package and the white phantom top and interior. I’d have a pocket full of rent money and the cops assumed I was working. (I gave that car away – too much trouble.)
I had to go to Internal Affairs after the commander of the jump out squad broke into one of my empty units to have sex with a street ho.
Since that time I’ve had run-ins with the cops but I know the Sherrif and chief of police, FBI agents,…
There are a lot of cops who can’t stand me but what are they going to do besides give me a dirty look.
For a while I had cops waiting outside of my clubs to mess with drunk patrons but IA had them stop because they weren’t doing the same at the drunker white clubs down the block.
I’ve had cops escort me home so other cops wouldn’t mess with me.
I KNOW racism exists, I just don’t set myself up to be in any situation where it can affect me.
Complaining won’t accomplish ish without action – I’m going for the Jim Brown approach.
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@ V8 – Nope. Sharpton, Jackson and any other third line inheriters of the Civil Rights movement are now members of the status quo. The ARE NOT being shot.
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@ Indignant – ‘Policy’ (as V8 mentions) is the problem.
After the Panthers (and similar groups) were eliminated gangs formed to fill the power vacuum.
The NOI self-determination/self-reliance model should have worked but most people weren’t ready for bow ties and bean pies.
The War on Drugs and it’s unequal application further ruined families and neighborhoods and communities.
Many white people only know Blacks at a distance or from the media so their views may be skewed towards the negative.
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@ Uglyblackjohn, who are the policymakers? No possibility that policies are created by racists to target certain groups? Come on. You talk as though laws just make themselves. Policy has always been used to oppress Black people in America.
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And the NOI model doesn’t work because it’s not universal; not everyone is prepared to pursue liberation through a religious framework, especially one that diminishes their African heritage.
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UglyBlackJohn said: “@ blakksage – I went to 47 funerals last year of kids killed by other Black kids. While tragic – those killings you’ve listed have little affect on my own life.”
Ok, … how does black on black crime either prove of translate into racism no longer existing within these Amerikan states? Thus far, it appears that your reply spring forth from a twisted frame of logic. Please assist me in understanding your response. I’ll be waiting!
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@UglyBlackJohn said: “These days there is little excuse to be a ‘victim’ of racism.”
AND then later
@UglyBlackJohn said: “I KNOW racism exists, I just don’t set myself up to be in any situation where it can affect me.
Well, good for you UglyBlackJohn, not everyone is so fortunate, such as yourself to be entirely insulated from the effects of racism/white supremacy, although I say this with reservations. Therefore, I guess racism in your little world exists in a vacuum with no chance of bothering you, … right.
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@blakksage: he’s not insulated, his answer to racism is to pretend it doesn’t exist and play respectability politics. How ironic on a thread about MLK Jr – one of the most respectable Black men there was. Yet he was still murdered by a racist.
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Interesting post. Honestly, I feel the purpose of Dr. King’s activism has been lost on some people. Especially the younger generation of Black people. So many Black people either don’t know their history nor would they sit down and appreciate the sacrifices that their ancestors made to ensure their rights are restored.
When the topic of racism and mistreatment of Black men and women in the hands of White people, bringing up Black on Black crime is a form of responsibility politics. This is implying that if Black people stop killing each other then White police officers will stop racially profiling and killing Black men and women. Well, that isn’t the case. Like someone pointed out, Dr. King adhered to much of the societal norms of his day yet was still murdered by a racist. This shows that racism runs much deeper than just dislike of another person based on race.
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*respectability
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@Indignant, I understand that he’s not insulated at all. People self-delude themselves all the time as a defense mechanism under the buckling weight of white supremacy without being conscious of doing so. Many of our people will say almost anything in their state of post servitude insanity.
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@ blakksage – No. I’m not insulated but there is a difference between ‘attempted racism’ (racist actions that have no negative effect) and being a victim (accepting an outcome dictated by others).
And no. I wasn’t commenting on Black-on-Black crime (well, not intentionally). The point I was trying make is that I can do nothing about the crimes you listed but I can attempt to make a change in and benefit my current city.
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@ Indignant – I know the Malcolm X/NOI model didn’t work. Maybe people remembered Tulsa or Rosewood – I don’t know.
But if you own your own you don’t have to ask permission – you just do.
I’m not going the full Marcus Garvey route and trying to move to Africa but the Garvey influenced NOI model makes sense.
If one listens to Malcolm’s speeches they’re more bootstrap and conservative than are Republican Conservatives.
And yeah, I know the cultural changes were too much for most people which is why I brought up the bow ties and bean pies.
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Uglyblackjohn said,
“I’m with Malcom in recognizing that power is only taken from the powerful through violence (Haiti). Power is given by those with a changed conscience.”
Kiwi said,
“Taking power by force is not an appeal to one’s conscience. Power is given by those who are reacting out of fear. Get it right.”
I don’t know. I’m more of a Malcom fan.
Maybe Kiwi can expand on his statement a bit. I see the world as a series a hierarchal constructs that are held together through race, money and violence.
MLK and the civil rights movement did dial back Jim Crow and reduced the level of interference into higher education and job opportunities for Blacks and POC.
Their was a counter movement called mass incarceration that kept Black communities from realizing any potential gains from civil rights. As soon as civil rights laws were enacted so began the birth of the industrial prison complex.
This was a natural shift within white supremacy to maintain dominance and civil rights issues had the effect of placating dissent by pretending rights has become universal when in practice they are randomly applied. This means that some Blacks may achieve upward mobility with no encounters of State violence and minimal experiences of white racism. It can give some a false sense of security but that can be taken away at anytime at a traffic stop, hospital visit or a random encounter with law enforcement.
So we live in a land of contradictions, where the rule of law as written claims one thing, but its application is always through the lens of race and class.
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@Kiwi
Very perceptive!
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@michaeljonbarker
“As soon as civil rights laws were enacted so began the birth of the industrial prison complex.”
So right. In fact it was President Johnson who signed the first bills militarizing the police on a national basis.
White Supremacy is like a virus that mutates to stay alive. It is so much a part of White Identity that most Whites and their allies will do anything—and I do mean anything—-to keep it going.
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@ Kiwi – Of course it’s a defense. Wealth is a defense. Education is a defense. Rollin’ with a deep squad is a defense. Connections are a defense. Looks are a defense. Size and strength are a defense. And being able to knock a nikka out who attempts to spit on you is a defense. Why do you think the Panthers and Brother Malcolm were photographed with guns? They were showing that they were able to defend themselves.
As far as having a lack of empathy while being on the same boat? I know I’m on the same boat, but why not get a better cabin, or captain the boat, or own the boat or a fleet while bringing as many with you as possible? If someone wishes to accept accommodations in the engine room and complain about the accommodations – that’s on them (especially after I’ve blown through a large part of an inheritance to offer opportunities and resources to help those around me).
The N-word? And?
What harm does that word do? Personally, it depends on my disposition at any given moment.
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@Uglyblackjohn
While I can’t agree with everything you say, I do get where you’re coming from.
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White Supremacy is like a virus that mutates to stay alive.
An apt analogy!
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@ Kiwi – Umm…. No. I said it depends on my disposition at any given time. I’m called the N-word quite often – usually proceeded by ‘uppity’ – but rarely to my face. Do I get mad? Not usually – the person saying that just admitted that THEY think that I am better than them. I just laugh a bellowing laugh because they’ve already admitted defeat.
I said I’d knock a Nikka out who’d even try to spit on me.
Doesn’t everyone wish to avoid conflict and anxiety? (Unless doing so causes harm to oneself or others.)
Having weaknesses (which everyone has) is different from being weak (which is a choice).
Call it a defense mechanism if you’d like but I prefer a true defense (some of which I listed above).
The Jews just couldn’t defend themselves which is why they were ‘knocked down a peg’ but I think they have since learned that intellect and wealth were not sufficient and now they are known for their military strength. (And even if one accounts for the American influence that just points to ‘connections’ as being an important aspect of one’s defense strategy.)
Everyone sets up defences – racism is a defense – but all defenses can be defeated.
Oh, you were thinking of a raft-like boat… I was thinking of a yacht.
But still, hide under the seats, have a seat in the back, blend in in the middle or sit in front and row in the direction you wish to go – choose your position. Hide with others, watch with others or have someone help you row – it’s your choice.
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@ Indignant – Thanks for taking the time to try to understand. Sometimes I don’t understand what I’m thinking. As I stated on an earlier post, I come here to learn from other’s comments. No one has all the answers to the points raised on these posts – only their own points of view.
I assume that everyone here is smart even if I disagree with them.
I’m not worried about being wrong – it happens sometimes (well, a lot of times). I’ve taken some butt whoopins in my life but that’s just part of life.
I’m not ballin’ but I’m doing a’ight. I’m just trying to figure out how to get people in my current town who come from where I came to get to where I am.
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blakksage
Martin Luther King was not only a womanizer and a sell-out; he was also a false prophet.
I don’t give a damn in the man fucked every hooker from sea to shining sea. That doesn’t make him any less right about how white people treated black people then or now.
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