From the #BirminghamJail, #MLK Told #Christians to Fight #Injustice
https://flagpole.com/news/street-scribe/2023/04/05/from-the-birmingham-jail-mlk-told-christians-to-fight-injustice/
#birminghamjail #mlk #christians #injustice
"One day the #South will #recognize its #real #heroes."
#MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. Image from #NASA. #MLKDay
#south #recognize #real #heroes #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #nasa #mlkday
"Now is the time to make real the #promise of #democracy and #transform our pending #national #elegy into a #creative #psalm of #brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national #policy from the quicksand of #racial #injustice to the solid #rock of #human #dignity." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. Image from interior of the Cannon Congressional Office Building, Washington, DC. #MLKDay
#promise #democracy #transform #national #elegy #creative #psalm #brotherhood #policy #racial #injustice #rock #human #dignity #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"We will have to #repent in this #generation not merely for the hateful words and #actions of the bad people but for the #appalling #silence of the #good #people." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. Image from interior of the Cannon Congressional Office Building, Washington, DC. #MLKDay
#repent #generation #actions #appalling #silence #good #people #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"[Y]ou assert that our #actions, even though #peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate #violence. ... We must come to see that, as the #FederalCourts 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." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from
#BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. #MLKDay
#actions #peaceful #violence #federalcourts #wrong #individual #constitutional #rights #society #protect #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"[W]e ... are not the creators of #tension. We merely bring to the #surface the #hidden tension that is already alive. ... 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, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of #human #conscience and the air of #NationalOpinion before it can be cured." #MartinLutherKing Jr., L.fr #BirminghamJail #MLKDay
#tension #surface #hidden #natural #air #light #injustice #human #conscience #nationalopinion #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"An #UnjustLaw is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a #minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is #difference made #legal. By the same token, a #JustLaw is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is #sameness made legal." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. Image from interior of the Cannon Congressional Office Building, Washington, DC. #MLKDay
#unjustlaw #minority #difference #legal #justlaw #sameness #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"One may well ask: 'How can you advocate breaking some #laws and obeying others?' The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: #just and #unjust. 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 #StAugustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail #MLKDay
#laws #just #unjust #legal #moral #responsibility #staugustine #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"We know through painful experience that #freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. . . . I have yet to engage in a #DirectAction campaign that was 'well timed' in the view of those who have not suffered . . . segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' ... This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see . . . that '#justice too long delayed is justice denied.'" #MartinLutherKing Letter from #BirminghamJail #MLKDay
#freedom #directaction #justice #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in #civilrights without determined #legal and #nonviolent #pressure. 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 #ReinholdNiebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more #immoral than individuals." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. #MLKDay
#civilrights #legal #nonviolent #pressure #historical #fact #privileged #privileges #moral #unjust #reinholdniebuhr #immoral #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"You may well ask: 'Why #DirectAction? Why #SitIns, #marches and so forth? Isn't #negotiation a better path?' . . . #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. . . . The #purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail. #MLKDay
#directaction #sitins #marches #negotiation #nonviolent #crisis #tension #community #negotiate #purpose #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday
"#Injustice anywhere is a threat to #justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of #mutuality, tied in a single garment of #destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial 'outside #agitator' idea. Anyone who lives inside the #UnitedStates can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." #MartinLutherKing Jr., Letter from #BirminghamJail, April 16, 1963. #MLKDay
#injustice #justice #mutuality #destiny #agitator #UnitedStates #martinlutherking #birminghamjail #mlkday