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Why We Can't Wait
Paperback
Published May 3, 2000
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About the author
Martin Luther King Jr.
436 books3,463 followersMartin Luther King, Jr. was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Here he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
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June 15, 2024
A FULL EXPLANATION OF THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND MLK’S WORK
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in the Introduction to this 1964 book, “It is the beginning of … 1963. I see a young Negro boy… His father is one of the jobless. His mother is a sleep-in domestic… I see a young Negro girl… Her mother died only recently after a car accident. Neighbors say if the ambulance hadn’t come so late to take her to the all-Negro hospital the mother might still be alive… This boy and this girl… are wondering: Why does misery constantly haunt the Negro?... Wherever there was hard work, dirty work, dangerous work… Negroes had done more than their share. The pale history books … told how the nation had fought a war over slavery… The war had been won but not a just peace. Equality had never arrived… They were seeing on television… that this was the one-hundredth birthday of their freedom. But freedom had a dull ring… when… sit-inners were jailed and beaten; freedom riders were brutalized and mobbed… It was the summer of 1963. Was emancipation a fact?... both of them squared their shoulders and lifted their eyes toward heaven… and took a firm, forward step. It was a step that rocked the richest, most powerful nation to its foundations. This is the story of ‘Why We Can’t Wait.’” [NOTE: page numbers below refer to a 160-page paperback edition.]
He states, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding, and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could win victories without losing wars, and so become the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963.” (Pg. 26)
He explains, “In the nonviolent army, there is room for everyone who wants to join up. There is no color distinction. There is no examination, no pledge, except that, as a soldier in the armies of violence is expected to inspect his carbine and keep it clean, non-violent soldiers are called upon to examine and burnish their greatest weapons---their heart, their conscience, their courage and their sense of justice.” (Pg. 39)
He recounts, “Toward the end of the mass meetings, [Rev. Ralph] Abernathy or [Rev. Fred] Shuttlesworth or I would extend an appeal for volunteers to serve in our nonviolent army. We made it clear that we would not send anyone out to demonstrate who had not convinced himself and us that he could accept and endure violence without retaliating. At the same time, we urged the volunteers to give up any possible weapons that they might have on their persons… Some of them who carried penknives, Boy Scout knives---all kinds of knives---had them not because they wanted to use them … to defend themselves against Mr. [Bull] Connor’s dogs. We proved to them that we needed no weapons…We proved that we possessed the most formidable weapon of all---the conviction that we were right… we were more concerned about realizing our righteous aims than about saving our skins.” (Pg. 61-62)
He recounts, “On the Monday following our jailing, [Coretta] decided that she must do something. Remembering the call that John Kennedy had made to her when I was jailed in Georgia during the 1960 election campaign, she placed a call to the President. Within a few minutes, his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, phoned back. She told him that she had learned I was in solitary confinement and was afraid for my safety. The Attorney General promised to do everything he could to have my situation eased. A few hours later President Kennedy himself called Coretta… and assured her that he would look into the matter immediately. Apparently the President and his brother placed calls to officials in Birmingham; for immediately after Coretta heard from them, my jailers asked if I wanted to call her. After the President’s intervention, conditions changed considerably.” (Pg. 74-75)
He recalls, “I had never been truly in solitary confinement; God’s companionship does not stop at the door of a jail cell. I don’t know whether the sun was shining at that moment. But I know that once again I could see the light.” (Pg. 75)
In his famous ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ [he notes that ‘Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author’s prerogative of polishing it for publication’], he wrote, “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… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” (Pg. 77)
He explains, “I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth… we must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.” (Pg. 79-80) Later, he adds, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.” (Pg. 85)
He continues, “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see… that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’ We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights… 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… One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” (Pg. 81-82)
He acknowledges, “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First… 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 Council or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice… 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.” (Pg. 84-95) Later, he adds, “So often [the church] is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent---and often even vocal---sanction of things as they are.” (Pg. 92)
He admits, “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[?]… Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel[?],,, So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?” (Pg. 88)
In ‘The Summer of Our Discontent,’ he states, “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was of an inferior race. Ever before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade… The Negro’s method of nonviolent direct action is not only suitable as a remedy for injustice… it challenges the myth of inferiority… no inferior people could choose and successfully pursue a course involving such extensive sacrifice, bravery and skill.” (Pg. 120-121)
This book should be “must reading” for nearly everyone---but particularly for those wanting to study the intellectual and theological development of King’s thought.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in the Introduction to this 1964 book, “It is the beginning of … 1963. I see a young Negro boy… His father is one of the jobless. His mother is a sleep-in domestic… I see a young Negro girl… Her mother died only recently after a car accident. Neighbors say if the ambulance hadn’t come so late to take her to the all-Negro hospital the mother might still be alive… This boy and this girl… are wondering: Why does misery constantly haunt the Negro?... Wherever there was hard work, dirty work, dangerous work… Negroes had done more than their share. The pale history books … told how the nation had fought a war over slavery… The war had been won but not a just peace. Equality had never arrived… They were seeing on television… that this was the one-hundredth birthday of their freedom. But freedom had a dull ring… when… sit-inners were jailed and beaten; freedom riders were brutalized and mobbed… It was the summer of 1963. Was emancipation a fact?... both of them squared their shoulders and lifted their eyes toward heaven… and took a firm, forward step. It was a step that rocked the richest, most powerful nation to its foundations. This is the story of ‘Why We Can’t Wait.’” [NOTE: page numbers below refer to a 160-page paperback edition.]
He states, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding, and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could win victories without losing wars, and so become the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963.” (Pg. 26)
He explains, “In the nonviolent army, there is room for everyone who wants to join up. There is no color distinction. There is no examination, no pledge, except that, as a soldier in the armies of violence is expected to inspect his carbine and keep it clean, non-violent soldiers are called upon to examine and burnish their greatest weapons---their heart, their conscience, their courage and their sense of justice.” (Pg. 39)
He recounts, “Toward the end of the mass meetings, [Rev. Ralph] Abernathy or [Rev. Fred] Shuttlesworth or I would extend an appeal for volunteers to serve in our nonviolent army. We made it clear that we would not send anyone out to demonstrate who had not convinced himself and us that he could accept and endure violence without retaliating. At the same time, we urged the volunteers to give up any possible weapons that they might have on their persons… Some of them who carried penknives, Boy Scout knives---all kinds of knives---had them not because they wanted to use them … to defend themselves against Mr. [Bull] Connor’s dogs. We proved to them that we needed no weapons…We proved that we possessed the most formidable weapon of all---the conviction that we were right… we were more concerned about realizing our righteous aims than about saving our skins.” (Pg. 61-62)
He recounts, “On the Monday following our jailing, [Coretta] decided that she must do something. Remembering the call that John Kennedy had made to her when I was jailed in Georgia during the 1960 election campaign, she placed a call to the President. Within a few minutes, his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, phoned back. She told him that she had learned I was in solitary confinement and was afraid for my safety. The Attorney General promised to do everything he could to have my situation eased. A few hours later President Kennedy himself called Coretta… and assured her that he would look into the matter immediately. Apparently the President and his brother placed calls to officials in Birmingham; for immediately after Coretta heard from them, my jailers asked if I wanted to call her. After the President’s intervention, conditions changed considerably.” (Pg. 74-75)
He recalls, “I had never been truly in solitary confinement; God’s companionship does not stop at the door of a jail cell. I don’t know whether the sun was shining at that moment. But I know that once again I could see the light.” (Pg. 75)
In his famous ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ [he notes that ‘Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author’s prerogative of polishing it for publication’], he wrote, “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… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” (Pg. 77)
He explains, “I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth… we must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.” (Pg. 79-80) Later, he adds, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with.” (Pg. 85)
He continues, “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see… that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’ We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights… 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… One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” (Pg. 81-82)
He acknowledges, “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First… 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 Council or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice… 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.” (Pg. 84-95) Later, he adds, “So often [the church] is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent---and often even vocal---sanction of things as they are.” (Pg. 92)
He admits, “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[?]… Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel[?],,, So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?” (Pg. 88)
In ‘The Summer of Our Discontent,’ he states, “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was of an inferior race. Ever before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade… The Negro’s method of nonviolent direct action is not only suitable as a remedy for injustice… it challenges the myth of inferiority… no inferior people could choose and successfully pursue a course involving such extensive sacrifice, bravery and skill.” (Pg. 120-121)
This book should be “must reading” for nearly everyone---but particularly for those wanting to study the intellectual and theological development of King’s thought.
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