Martin Luther King - Why We Can't Wait

7 Pages 1711 Words

the Presidential election of John F. Kennedy, the Black community expected extensive civil

rights legislation. Those changes did not come as expected. Martin Luther King compares the

1963 circumstance in which Southern Blacks live, to that of Black slaves 100 years prior. “Any

Negro who displayed a spark of manhood, a southern law enforcement officer could say “Nigger,

watch your step or I’ll put you in jail”.” (King p. 15) Jail to a Black American in the South meant

certain death. Black Americans saw non-violent action as a “way to supplement – not replace –

the process of change through legal resource.” (King p. 23) The Civil Rights movement, led by

the SCLC, began to first use martyrdom as a legitimate tool in 1963. They would rely on their

moral and religious strengths. Martin Luther King believed that “militancy is also the father of

the non-violent way.” (King p. 27) Military organization and detail went into every sit-in, picket,

and march. Martin Luther King’s final primer to his Letter from Birmingham Jail was to go into

detail what Birmingham was like under Mayor Eugene...