“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
August 1963

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Dear Friends,

If you have not read “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from which the above quotation is taken, I urge you to do so.

I was a young girl during the nonviolent struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I really didn’t grasp, at the time, the rationale and issues behind the protests. I was too young and too protected in my suburban white community to understand the issues of segregation and discrimination. The protests, the arrests, the violence against the nonviolent demonstrators were on every television news show every night.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I see now, was a bright and shining star. A man of courage and wisdom.

At the time, I wish I had read his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” from which the above quotation comes. You can find the letter at: web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf or click here

Let us not forget that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come.”

We cannot remain silent and must join them wherever we meet them, in whatever ways we are capable, in their quest for freedom and equality.

Susan Batterton
Communications
The Interfaith Peace Project