“1 am in Birmingham because injustice is here“. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. relates coming to Birmingham to how Apostle Paul went to Tarsus to carry out the gospel of Jesus. Dr. King’s mission was to carry out the gospel of freedom. “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere“. No one who lives in the United States is an outsider to anywhere in the country. Everyone is affected by what happens in his or her country. Dr. King recognizes the issues that are taking place in Birmingham and he knew he needed to take action. Him and his colleagues went there to spread the truth about freedom. By helping out one major town, it could have a greater effect on another. “I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being”.
The demonstrations are not the problem; the problem is what is causing the demonstrations. The causes of the demonstrations were because of lack of civil rights, Dr. King is upset that the town of Birmingham had left no other alternative for civil rights other than the demonstrations that have occurred in that town, He was not happy that they were taking place, but he knew what the causes of them were, and that made him even more upset about the situation It is unfortunate that the white people in power are not aware that their actions, and lack thereof, are the reasons behind the demonstrations of protest that had happened Birmingham Birmingham has been a brutal and harsh place to live for African Americans who were pursuing their civil rights. “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored”, Dr. King has preached against violent tension.
Direct action has the purpose to create a crisis that will cause an inevitable negotiation for civil rights. Negotiation was necessary, but it has to been an open negotiation between others, and not just a one sided negotiation. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ lt rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never. Over hundreds of years had gone by and there have been a minute amount of steps towards civil rights. Justice has been too long denied and waiting was the last thing that Dr. King thought would be beneficial, He felt that it was easy for the oppressors to say wait because they have never felt the pain of inequality. “We so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1945 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws”. Dr. King was not as willing to break laws as people in power perceived it, especially since the Supreme Court outlawed public school segregation.
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Dr. King expressed his belief in two kinds of laws. There are laws that he called just, and the other was unjust. Unjust laws were not a kind of law at all, “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law”. A law that conflicts with morals is hard to obey. Dr. King believed that segregation was an unjust law, that it was morally wrong, Segregation was a symbol of inequality and estrangement and that was why Dr. King encouraged his people to disobey the segregation laws. He viewed those laws as morally wrong; therefore he could not obey it. “I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscious tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law”.
Dr. King respected the laws but he did not see all of them as fair. He could not bring himself or others to obey laws that he saw morally wrong. But, they would respectfully accept their punishment if they had to. If no laws were broken, then there would not have been any kind of a change, the numerous amounts of protests against segregation brought it to its prohibition. Dr. King related his situation to the Holocaust; Hitler outlawed aiding and comforting the Jewish people, but if he were there at that time, Dr. King said that he would have been happy to help them.
Just because things are outlawed, it does not always mean that they are morally wrong. “The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love?”. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were considered extremists because of what they did for the United States. They both talked and wrote about how all men are created equal. Dr. King depicts Jesus Christ as an extremist as well; he explains that Jesus was an extremist for love and for truth. Truth andjustice is what Dr. King wanted most, it is how he could reach equality.
He was considered an extremist because of his strong beliefs and because he acted on them. He spoke out against injustice, just like Abraham Lincoln. Not all extremists stand for anarchy. “I have no fear about the outcomes of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood”. Dr. King believed that he would reach his goal in Birmingham and even all over America someday. The goal of America is freedom, and he knew that eventually freedom would reign throughout all of America for its entire people. Since slavery could not even discourage their ancestors, Dr. King believed that nothing else could. God and the destiny of America would set them free and give them theirjustice and civil rights someday.
