- [Narrator] What we're
going to read together
in this video is what has become known as
Martin Luther King's Letter
from a Birmingham Jail,
which he wrote from a jail cell in 1963
after he and several of his associates
were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama
as they nonviolently
protested segregation there.
And, I'm going to read an excerpt of it.
I encourage you to read
it in its entirety.
It is one of the most powerful documents,
frankly, I have ever read.
And Martin Luther King often gets
a lot of credit as an amazing speaker.
People say, "Hey, he
could read the phone book,
"and it would move people."
But this also speaks to what
an incredible writer he was.
Not only is it moving, but it really gives
the philosophical underpinnings of the
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
And many people attribute
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
passed by Congress as
being heavily influenced
by Martin Luther King's letter.
Now, what motivated Martin Luther King
to write this letter was a statement
made in the newspaper by
eight Alabama clergymen,
which encouraged the protesters to wait
saying, "That, yes, we are
sympathetic to the injustices,
"but they should be resolved in the courts
"and not through the type of protests,
"the type of tension,
that Martin Luther King
"and his fellow protesters were creating."
And so, here's just an excerpt of what
Martin Luther King wrote,
"You may well ask, 'Why direct action?
"'Why sit ins, marches and so forth?
"'Isn't negotiation a better path?'
"You are quite right in
calling for negotiation.
"Indeed, this is the very
purpose of direct action.
"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.
"It seeks so to dramatize the issue
"that it can no longer be ignored.
"My citing the creation of tension
"as part of the work of
the nonviolent resister
"may sound rather shocking.
"But I must confess that I am
"not afraid of the word 'tension.'
"I have earnestly opposed violent tension,
"but there is a type of constructive,
"nonviolent tension which
is necessary for growth.
"Just as Socrates felt
that it was necessary
"to create a tension in the mind so that
"individuals could rise from the bondage
"of myths and half truths
to the unfettered realm
"of creative analysis
and objective appraisal,
"so must we see the need
for nonviolent gadflies
"to create the kind of tension in society
"that will help men rise
from the dark depths
"of prejudice and racism
to the majestic heights
"of understanding and brotherhood.
"The purpose of our direct action program
"is to create a situation so crisis packed
"that it will inevitably
open the door to negotiation.
"I guess 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 sister
and brothers at whim;
"when you have seen hate-filled policemen
"curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill
"your black brothers and
sisters with impunity;
"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 cannot go
"to the public amusement park that has
"just been advertised on television;
"when you take a cross-country 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 'colored,'
"then you will understand why
we find it difficult to wait."
I've read this many times,
but every time I read it,
and this is just an
excerpt, as you can tell,
it's incredibly powerful.
And I encourage you to
read it in its entirety,
and think about why this was
such a powerful document,
especially for catalyzing things
like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
