fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, Ihave watched white churchmen stand on the sideline andmouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. Inthe midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial andeconomic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Thoseare social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.”And I have watched many churches commit themselves to acompletely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul; between the sacredand the secular. .I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge ofthis decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to theaid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fearabout the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if ourmotives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goalof freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because thegoal of America is freedom.Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny istied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landedat Plymouth, we were here. For more than two centuries ourforebears labored in this country, without wages; they madecotton king; they built the homes of their masters whilesuffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation and yet outof a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop.If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, theopposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedombecause the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal willof God are embodied in our echoing demands.Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point inyour statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmlycommended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order”and preventing violence.”I doubt that you would have so warmly commended thepolice force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth intounarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would soquickly commend the policemen if you were to observe theirugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail;if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro womenand young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kickold Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them,as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because wewanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in yourpraise of the Birmingham police department.It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline inhandling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conductedthemselves rather “nonviolently’ in public. But for whatpurpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation.the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrongto use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I mustaffirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to usemoral means to preserve Immoral ends. . . . As T. S. Eliot hassaid, “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do theright deed for the wrong reason.I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners anddemonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, theirwillingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midstof great provocation. One day the South will recognize its realheroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble senseof purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs,and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the lifeof the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negrowomen, symbolized in a seventy-two~ year-old woman inMontgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignityand with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, andwho responded with ungrammatical profundity to one whoinquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul isat rest.”They will be the young high school and college students, theyoung ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageouslyand nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters andwillingly going to jail for conscience’ sake. One day the Southwill know that when these disinherited children of God satdown at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up forwhat is best in the American dream and for the most sacredvalues in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing ournation back to those great wells of democracy which weredug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of theConstitution and the Declaration of independence.Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it ismuch too long to take your precious time. I can assure you thatit would have been much shorter if I had been writing from acomfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alonein a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think longthoughts and pray long prayers? . .Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood,MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolencedemands that the means we use must be as pure as231