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In honor of #MLKDay 
, I want to share some important excerpts from the final chapter of his book "Why We Can't Wait."
Too many of his words feel especially relevant for our current moment in history, and have inspired me in recent weeks.
, I want to share some important excerpts from the final chapter of his book "Why We Can't Wait." Too many of his words feel especially relevant for our current moment in history, and have inspired me in recent weeks.
I also want to honor #CorettaScottKing who started @kingcenter1968 and continued his legacy.
I encourage folks to purchase this book from The King Center, and at least read the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the book's final chapter. https://king-center-bookstore.myshopify.com/collections/books/products/why-we-cant-wait
I encourage folks to purchase this book from The King Center, and at least read the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the book's final chapter. https://king-center-bookstore.myshopify.com/collections/books/products/why-we-cant-wait
On the liberation of Black people:
"...Yet that same American may not realize that callous indifference to human suffering exists to this day, when people who consider themselves men of good will are still asking: 'What is the Negro willing to pay if we give him his freedom?'"
"...Yet that same American may not realize that callous indifference to human suffering exists to this day, when people who consider themselves men of good will are still asking: 'What is the Negro willing to pay if we give him his freedom?'"
“[...]'Will he, like Oliver Twist, demand more?'
What is implied here is the amazing assumption that society has the right to bargain with the Negro for the freedom which inherently belongs to him.”
What is implied here is the amazing assumption that society has the right to bargain with the Negro for the freedom which inherently belongs to him.”
“In a sense, the well-meaning or the ill-meaning American who asks: 'What more will the Negro want' or 'When will he be satisfied?' or 'What will it take to make these demonstrations cease?' Is asking the Negro to purchase something that already belongs to him...”
“The Negro is saying that the time has come for our nation to take that firm stride into freedom—not simply toward freedom—which will pay a long overdue debt to its citizens of color.”
“The shape of the world will not permit us the luxury of gradualism and procrastination. Not only is it immoral, it will not work. It will not work because Negroes know they have the right to be free.”
“As certain as it is that planned gradualism will not work, neither will unplanned spontaneity.
[...] Either of these courses—gradualism or directionless spontaneity— would generate social turmoil both for the deprived and for the privileged."
[...] Either of these courses—gradualism or directionless spontaneity— would generate social turmoil both for the deprived and for the privileged."
"Solutions to the complex plight of the Negro will not be easy. This does not signify that they are impossible."
"We will make progress if we accept the fact that four hundred years of sinning cannot be canceled out in four minutes of atonement. Neither can we allow for the guilty to tailor their atonement in such a manner as to visit another four seconds of deliberate hurt upon the victim.
“When we say that the Negro wants absolute and immediate freedom and equality, not in Africa or in some imaginary state, but right here in this land today, the answer is disturbingly terse to people who are not certain they wish to believe it....
...Yet this is the fact. Negroes no longer are tolerant of or interested in compromise.”
On white people misunderstanding the nature of Black Revolution:
“Some believe that is the work of skilled agitators who have the power to raise or lower the floodgates at will. Such a movement, maneuverable by a talented few, would not be a genuine revolution....
“Some believe that is the work of skilled agitators who have the power to raise or lower the floodgates at will. Such a movement, maneuverable by a talented few, would not be a genuine revolution....
...This Revolution is genuine because it was born from the same womb that always gives birth to massive social upheavals—the womb of intolerable conditions and unendurable situations.”
“The hard truth is that the unity of the movement is a remarkable feature of major importance. The fact that different organizations place varying degrees of emphasis on certain tactical approaches is not indicative of disunity. Unity has never meant uniformity.”
“When the cry for justice has hardened into a palpable force, it becomes irresistible. This is a truth which wise leadership and a sensible society ultimately come to realize."
"The sooner our society admits that the Negro Revolution is no momentary outburst soon to subside into placid passivity, the easier the future will be for us all.”
“The upsurge of power in the civil rights movement has given it greater maneuverability, and substantial security. It is now strong enough to form alliances, to make commitments in exchange for pledges, and if the pledges are unredeemed...
...it remains powerful enough to walk out without being shattered or weakened.”
“By and large, Negroes remain essentially skeptical, issue-oriented, and independent-minded. Their lack of formal learning is no barrier when it comes to making intelligent choices among alternatives. The Negroes’ real problem has been that they have seldom adequate choices.”
“Eventually the civil-rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial injustice. It will have enlarged the concept of brotherhood to a vision of total interrelatedness."
“To date, only a relatively few practitioners of nonviolent direct action have been committed to its philosophy. The great mass have used it pragmatically as a tactical weapon, without being ready to live it."
(on non-violence)
"More and more people, however, have begun to conceive of this powerful ethic as a necessary way of life in a world where the wildly accelerated development of nuclear power has brought into being weapons that can annihilate all humanity.”
"More and more people, however, have begun to conceive of this powerful ethic as a necessary way of life in a world where the wildly accelerated development of nuclear power has brought into being weapons that can annihilate all humanity.”
"It is no longer merely the idealist or the doom-ridden who seeks for some controlling force capable of challenging the instrumentalities of destruction. Many are searching.”
“Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another’s flesh."
"Nonviolence, the answer to the Negroes' need, may become the answer to the most desperate need of all humanity."
