#Letter From a Birmingham Jail

[odinsblog]

“The great enemy of justice are those moderates who feign outrage at societal injustice, but whose outrage conveniently disappears when real change threatens their status. These moderates are more comfortable leaving unchallenged the assumed moral authority of certain institutions, traditions and practices that are the purveyors of injustice rather than confronting their own role in maintaining these institutions. The hard truth is that the comfort of the status quo is always preferable to pursuing the demands of justice.”

—MLKjr

Despite what moderates (centrists, neoliberals, etc.)—who are more devoted to order than justice—might be saying, there should be no doubt that Martin Luther King, Jr. would be on the side of the student protesters who are standing up for Palestine 🇵🇸

[asg-stuff]

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]

"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". (via "Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]" | AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA)

The moral universe doesn’t bend toward justice unless pressure is applied. (via Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How to sustain momentum for the anti-racism movement | Los Angeles Times)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. —Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

[Scott Horton]

[humorwithatwist]

Most Influential Christian Books in History

I was recently talking with a friend who wants to learn more about church history and they asked for some top ten lists to get acquainted with important people and books from the history of Christianity. So I sent them the following list. Now, a quick caveat here: These are books that specifically influenced theology, faith, and Biblical interpretation. Christians certainly can and have…

[addictedtowords16]

But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist? -- "Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an extremist? -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?

Letter From a Birmingham Jail

[bonelesssboiz]

Currently thinking about how we constantly learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in school but never actually read or heard his work??? weird I wonder why

[odinsblog]

ID: Video transcription of a TikTok stitch. Transcript begins.

TikTok user, OllyDobson961:

Header that reads, “Why people think in opposites”.

You might have noticed how people are saying, if you're not pro-Palestine, you're pro-Israel, you might remember.

TikTok user, elisbaglin:

And they'd be correct in saying that, because the fact of the matter is there isn't a middle ground in a system that perpetuates itself based on brutal colonialist violence and the suppression of millions of innocent people for nearly a century.

There are no both sides here.

Here's just one graph of a comparison between the casualties observed between both of these nations over the last few years.

According to the UN and the ICC's own conventions, the Israeli government can quite easily be defined as an apartheid state.

The Israeli government themselves actively funded and trained a radical Islamic terror group for the sake of suppressing popular support for the originally secular and leftist movement that was leading the cause for an independent Palestine in the 70s and 80s.

This having the inevitable consequence of the brutal attacks that we saw against its own civilians over the last few days.

Following the events of the last few days, the Israeli government has now instituted a total blockade over the Gaza Strip, meaning that 2 million people, innocent civilians, might I add, are trapped without water, food and electricity, which is collective punishment, aka, awar crime acknowledged by the United Nations themselves.

The fact of the matter is, one of these countries does not have an active military, and the other sustains its entire existence based upon the military industrial complexes of some of the greatest superpowers in the world. To sit for even a second and suggest there can be two sides to such a brutally one sided conflict is completely absurd.

Should we have sat idly by during the apartheid of South Africa?

No.

Should we have just sat on the fence during the Civil Rights movement of the 60s in the United States?

Obviously not.

So why now, of all times, should we just pretend like it's not happening and just keep on fence sitting?

Especially when a nation is so obviously uncaring about its own brutality and the rights of millions of innocent people when anyone wants to fence it during an issue that is so, so horrific?

I always think of this quote by Martin Luther King:

“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Black man's great stumbling block in the stride towards freedom is not the white citizen's counselor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative piece, which is the absence of tension, to a positive piece, which is the presence of justice. Who constantly says, I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action, who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom, who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Black man to wait until a more convenient season. Shallow misunderstanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

Oh, no, I will not sit here and refuse to take a stance because supposedly I have no skin in the game when my own taxpayer money is going to actively fund the murder of thousands more innocent men, women and children.

Thank you.

Transcript ends.

Bc I'm sick and tired of everyone's wishy-washy ass comments. Free Palestine.

cred: elisbaglin on tiktok

[odinsblog]

[sugas6thtooth]

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Don’t be the white moderate that would disappoint Dr. King.

Today's the day where you see everyone quote MLK, even people who actively works against literally everything he and grassroots leaders and organizers and Civil Rights era activists, those whom came before, and those whom came after have and are still striving towards.

"Freedom", "Unity", and "Peace" are three words that even the well meaning will throw out and ask for in the spirit of MLK, but sometimes folks will do it uncritically.

They ask for freedom with pointing out what holds people in bondage today. They'll uncritically ask for unity without explaining who needs to unify or who they're asking us to unify with. They'll ask for peace and mean an absence of conflict, but Martin Luther King Jr may have advocated non-violent protests but he wasn't advocating a lack of conflict.

In the non-violent protest tension was created; tension that begged a response. King and others knew what the likely outcomes was of their protest. They knew the dangers and violence that awaited them and still they did it anyways.

[Image: Colorized photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, and daughters Yolanda and Bernice King sitting for an evening meal.]

From his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, we have the following;

"First, I must confess that over the last 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 the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er 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 can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Emphasis mine. Everyone wants to quote his "I Have A Dream's speech, because it is so filled with hope and while there is nothing wrong with that, lip service is paid to Martin Luther King Jr. Don't forget that he was assinated. Listen to some of his other speeches and read some of his other writing.

His Three Evils of Society Speech is espet prescient today:

And lest we forget Coretta Scott King? We'd bet not. Every inch of a champion of civil rights and justice as King;

[image: Screenshot of a Twitter post from @MsPackyetti with text and an image of Coretta Scott King.

Text: "Something is wrong when we have to feed so many. Why should there be poverty with all of our science and technology? There is no deficit in human resources- it is a deficit in human will." - Coretta Scott King #MLK #ReclaimMLK

A Queen was here too. She made us better.]

Read all of Letter From a Birmingham Jail, see King's frustration with the moderate liberal, and then see the same arguments that he and others were struggling against being made today when there's a BLM protest or when finger wagging naysayer tries to drag you into the weeds about "defund the police".

Anyways, that's all.

--silentaugur

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[readingsquotes]

"I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negroes' great stumbling block in the 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 can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr.  via Learning for Justice site

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

More on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Many readers sent notes saying that they read MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail after I linked to it in the newsletter on MLK Day earlier this week. Everyone who wrote to me said they were moved and impressed by Dr. King’s message. One reader, Nancy C., sent a note with a link to a story explaining how Dr. King wrote the Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  

As Dr. King sat in jail, eight ministers published a letter rebuking his non-violent movement. He decided to respond. Here is what happened next, in the words of Willie Pearl Mackey King, who served as a receptionist / typist for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference:

Dr. King decided that he was going to write an answer. He was in jail, and he asked the jailers for pen and paper. They said, “You’re not in a library! You don’t get anything to write with.” He wrote on the edges of newspaper, on toilet paper, on sandwich bags. His attorney Clarence Jones hid the scraps under his suit jacket and slipped them out of the jail. We had to put together this jigsaw puzzle. We were on the floor, trying to figure it out, Scotch-taping things together. Dr. King’s handwriting was not the best. The lighting was terrible in his jail cell. I was not allowed to leave the office for three days and two nights. I typed this document on an IBM Selectric typewriter, not a computer where you could cut and paste. If I made a mistake, I had to redo everything. [¶] That is how we developed the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” When we released it, no one paid attention at first. Only when Bull Connor [the city’s commissioner of public safety] ordered fire hoses and dogs onto the demonstrators in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park did we start getting requests for the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” I could not mimeograph enough copies.

If you haven’t had a chance to read Letter from Birmingham Jail, the week honoring Dr. King’s birthday is a good time to do so!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[187days]

Day Sixty-Eight

One big thing that every new teacher has to learn is effective classroom management. As a department head, I've been trying to help the rookies when I can. I've had chats with both Mr. V and Mr. Q recently, listened to what they're experiencing, made some suggestions. I'm always worried if I'm doing enough, or giving the right advice... Hopefully, I am!

Meantime, I'm combatting second quarter slump in my own classes. The Religion/Philosophy Essay is proving quite effective for that in Global Studies. Students are working hard because- as they've told me- they're feeling like they can succeed at something they'd thought would be really difficult. So that's excellent. And in APGOV, the content's just so cool. Today's lesson was about the desegregation campaign in Birmingham, and included Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Attention spans frayed towards the end of the block, so not everyone finished reading, but I figured that would probably happen. We'll pick up with a discussion about it on Monday.

What else?

There was a whole school meeting during advisory today. We have either class meetings or whole school meetings once a month; this was the first school wide meeting. Student leaders set the agenda and ran it themselves. They started by recognizing various student achievements, did a club spotlight (on Key Club), discussed positive cheering in the student section at our winter sports events, and then gave each grade instructions to record a video message for a teacher who is currently receiving cancer treatment. I thought it was good stuff, and was happy it went well.

Track practice went well, too. It's picture day, so practice was shorter than usual. We had just enough time to warm up, do a few 40m dashes, and- to the team's delight (heh)- a core workout because Fridays are for core. The sprinters told me I had way too much fun calling out the exercises, which is probably true!

[linusjf]

Martin Luther King, Jr: Deep

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), U.S. clergyman, civil rights leader. “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Why We Can’t Wait (1963).

[black-paraphernalia]

BLACK PARAPHERNALIA DISCLAIMER - PLEASE READ

“Every year they take/ pluck quotes from this letter to solidified and justify their warped moral sense of racial equality, and ignoring the true totality of the meaning and spirit of the letter and why it was written” bp

IN HONOR OF DR KING - UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWING                          THE LETTER FROM THE BIRMINGHAM JAIL 

 April 16, 1963 wittern in Jefferson, Alabama

EXCEPT TAKEN FROM THE  THE HISTORY ENGINE

After being arrested in downtown Birmingham on a Good Friday, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous letter, “A Letter From Birmingham Jail” responding to the criticism demonstrated by eight prominent white clergy man.

This letter has been found important throughout history because it expresses King’s feelings toward the unjust events and it is an example of a well-written argument. 

Most importantly, this letter explains current events in Birmingham in 1963 as well as in the rest of America and it demonstrates the approach Reverend King took throughout the whole civil-rights movement of 1950s and 1960s. 

Due to unfortunate circumstances, the great injustice of slavery makes up a significant portion of America’s history.  Even after this chapter of history ended, it left its legacy of “blacks” being portrait as subhuman and it developed a sense of racism in the new generations. In addition, following the Civil War, that legacy was expressed through the Jim Crow Laws, which promoted segregation. 

These new laws violated the fundamental american tenet that “all men are created equal” and are “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable right”.  Historian C. Vann Woodward describes the segregating Jim Crow laws as: “That code lent the sanction of law to a social ostracism that extended to churches and schools, to housing and jobs to eating and drinking. Whether by law or by custom, that ostracism extended to virtually all forms of public transportation, to sports and recreations, to hospitals, orphanages, prisons and asylums and ultimately to funeral homes, morgues, and cemeteries.”

The American people were motivated by the terrible acts of violence on black people and were touched by the civil-rights movement’s message of “respect for the dignity of the individual” There are different opinions of what led to start the civil-rights movement of 1950s and 1960s. Although some may say it was after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Brown v. Board of Education 1954.

Fairclough wrote that it was a “consequence of the rise of black voting after World War II”.Nonetheless, it is a fact that Alabama was home to the three most significant campaigns. First there was the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56, followed by the Birmingham protests of 1963 and later on the Selma Campaign of 1965.