Letter from an Alabama Slammer in Off Topic

ID:53250
 
Jan 19 2009, 9:14 am
In America, today is Martin Luther King Day. Since I'm employed in the private sector, I don't get the day off for it. But I can at least take a couple minutes to point you to this famous letter, which demonstrates, I think, that Rev. King was a pretty intelligent fellow. Happy MLK Day!

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/ Letter_Birmingham.html

#1 Jan 19 2009, 7:21 pm
yeah i remember reading this earlier in the school year.

Whats amazing about this letter is that since he was in jail in such a hectic time, the police didn't allow for him to write to anyone. So to hide his message, he'd write 1-2 sentences on a small piece of paper and than give that to his friend when they visited. All the small fragments of paper put together was the letter

Imagine how much of a genius he had to be to write such a amazing letter line by line and purely off of memory.
#2 Jan 20 2009, 8:02 am
Thanks for posting this... I haven't read this in over a decade. This paragraph struck a nerve for me:

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.