This is the letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, from a Birmingham jail cell, after being arrested for leading a non-violent protest against segregation.
Thank you to Bernice King for recommending the reading of this last January, along with The Three Evils Of Society th-cam.com/video/6sT9Hjh0cHM/w-d-xo.html, The Other America th-cam.com/video/dOWDtDUKz-U/w-d-xo.html, Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break The Silence th-cam.com/video/AJhgXKGldUk/w-d-xo.html and Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community? store.thekingcenter.org/products/where-do-we-go-from-here-chaos-or-community?variant=40550823428303
So much of King's legacy has been defined, to many, by his words "they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." A great sentiment indeed, and something that we should strive for, but certainly not the totality of his ideology.
While the Birmingham protests (along with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the I Have A Dream speech was delivered) brought attention to the movement, and preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and eventually the Voting Rights Act of 1964, King was still not satisfied with the incremental progress which had been made by 1967, when he wrote Where Do We Go From Here, and certainly his assassination in 1968 would make it apparent that we still had a long way to go, at that time, to make this the great nation that we've always been told that it is.
Little has changed today. Incremental progress and "white backlash" has left us, socially, in the dark ages. Although King's life and legacy is celebrated with a holiday, many of his words are ignored, and some of them are weaponized by fragile egos who refuse to face criticism of their own status. King was very critical of white America, not only the reactionaries and bigots, but the white moderates who would give lip-service to the cause of liberation, but little in action to combat white supremacy, he was also very critical of the church that would reinforce the status quo rather than invoke the radical nature of their chosen savior.
King's dream included economic justice, though he generally shied away from directly advocating for Socialism, he was by no means a fan of our capitalist system, as he points out in The Three Evils of Society, evils which he saw as racism, militarism and poverty (materialism / economic exploitation).
Stay tuned for the full MLK feature, covering the Great March on Washington and Where Do We Go From Here, from CULTCHA Clash Outer National, coming soon. Please like and share this video.