Post 3/21 Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail is a very important part of the continuous non-violent protests for black civil rights. In the letter he reminded me a lot of Ida B Wells in her book On Lynching, where she brought up the issues raised by the other side of the argument and debunked them all one by one. King did this in a way that helped explain his purpose and the methods of his fight. He consistently gave examples that shut down the assumptions or questions asked. As I read though it seemed as if the questions and issues he was trying to prove were common sense. It’s crazy to me that then and now equality is such a hard pill to swallow for some. King also like Ida calls a few people out in this letter, specifically the moderate whites, the complacent negroes, and the white church community. All people who are supposed to be people that help the cause but they make excuses for the injustices instead.
King explained why direct, non-violent action was necessary for the movement. He explained why there was no more time to sit back and wait. When we wait for justice to occur with no action, we will never see that justice. This is why protest is so important even today. What I took away from the letter is that perseverance and resilience is the best tactic for non violent action to be successful. Kings words in this letter stuck with me because when I look around me today they can still be applied. How long can we as a people wait for the justice we need and have been asking for since the beginning of the US. Every time one of my people are murdered by the people who were meant to protect, or politicians paint our communities as the problem, we are expected to be silent and wait for things to get better. As we learned from Kings experience waiting gets us nowhere, it’s all about the action. 

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