T;is year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King , Jr. ' s ' Letter from Birmingham Jail ." Dr . King was jailed for campaigning gainst racial segregation in Birmingham , in violation of an injunction against anyone " parading , demonstrating , boycotting , trespassing and picketing ." His letter was written on the margins of a newspaper , scraps of paper that another prisoner gave to him , and then a legal pad that his attorney left behind . It has been an inspiration to millions of people ; I am one of them . Here are some excerpts :
Former Congressman Alan Grayson Florida - 9th Congressional Districk
'' Letter from a Birmingham Jail "
Dr . Martin Luther King , Jr . April 16 , 1963 50 th Anniversary
I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham . 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 ....
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights . The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence , but we stiffly creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter . Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say , " Wait ." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim ; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse , kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters ; when you see the vast majority of your twenty 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 can ' t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television , and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children , and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky , and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people ; when you have
Program Success 26 October 2017
Alan Grayson MLK Letter from a Birmingham Jail jOrlando , Florida October 2017
to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking : " Daddy , why do white people treat colored people so mean ?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable comers 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 "; when your first name becomes " nigger ," your middle name becomes " boy " ( however old you are ) and your last name becomes " John ," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title " Mrs ."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro , living constantly at tiptoe stance , never quite knowing what to expect next , and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments ; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of " nobodiness " then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait . There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over , and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair . I hope , sirs , you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience ...
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist , as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label . Was not Jesus an extremist for love : " Love your enemies , bless them that curse you , do good to them that hate you , and pray for them which despitefully use you , and persecute you ." Was not Amos an extremist for justice : " Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream ." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian