Great Debates R>

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Great Debates r>. in American History CIVIL RIGHTS

The Readings our constitutional and God-given rights .... Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote the the stinging darts of segregation to say "Wait." letter excerpted here while in jail in Birming- But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch ham, Alabama, after being arrested as an your mothers and fathers at will and drown "outside agitator" in a protest there. your sisters and brothers at whim; when you In Support of Civil Disobedience have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why and even kill your black brothers and sisters sit-ins, marches, etc.?" ... Nonviolent direct with impunity; when you see the vast majority action seeks to foster such a tension that a of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering community which has constantly refused to in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It an affluent society; when you suddenly find seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no your tongue twisted as you seek to explain to longer be ignored. My citing the creation of your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to tension as part of the work of the nonviolent the public amusement park that has just been resister may sound rather shocking. But I advertised on television, and see tears welling readily acknowledge that I am not afraid of the up when she is told that Funtown is closed to word "tension." I have earnestly opposed colored children, and see ominous clouds of violent tension, but there is a type of construc- inferiority beginning to form in her little mental tive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for sky, and see her beginning to distort her growth .... personality by unconsciously developing a The purpose of our direct -actton program is bitterness toward white people; ... when you f\ to create a situation so crisis-packed that it take a cross-country drive and find it neces- will inevitably open the door to negotiation .... sary to sleep night after night in the uncom- We have waited for more than 340 years for fortable corners of your automobile because no

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Great Debates in American History Continued motel will accept you; . . . when your first become insensitive to the problems of the name becomes "nigger," your middle name masses. The other force is one of bitterness becomes "boy" (however old you are), and your and hatred, and it comes perilously close to last name becomes "John," ... -then you will advocating violence. It is expressed in the understand why we find it dif- various black nationalist ficult to wait. There comes a groups that are springing up time when the cup of endur- "The purpose of our across the nation, the ance runs over, and men are direct-action program is largest and best-known no longer willing to be plunged to create a situation so being Elijah Muhammad's into an abyss ofinjustice where crisis-packed that it will Muslim movement. Nour- they experience the bleakness inevitably open the door ished by the Negro's frustra- of corroding despair. . . . tion over the continued ... In no sense do I advocate to negotiation." existence of racial discrimi- evading the law, as would the - Dr. Martin Luther nation, this movement is rabid segregationist. That King, Jr. made up of people who have would lead to anarchy. One lost faith in America, who who breaks an unjust law must "Ifit must take violence have absolutely repudiated do so openly, lovingly, and with to get the black man his Christianity, and who have a willingness to accept the pen- human rights in this concluded that the white alty. I submit that anindi- country, I'm for man is an incorrigible vidual who breaks a law that violence... "devil." conscience tells him is unjust - Malcolm X I have tried to stand and who willingly accepts the between these two forces, penalty of imprisonment in saying that we need emulate order to arouse the conscience of the commu- neither the "do-nothtngtsm" of the complacent nity over its injustice is in reality expressing nor the hatred of the black nationalist. For the highest respect for law.... there is the more excellent way of love and I had hoped that the white moderate would nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, understand that law and order exist for the through the influence of the Negro church, the purpose of establishing justice and that when way of nonviolence became an integral part of they fail in this purpose they block social our struggle. progress. I had hoped that the white moderate If this philosophy had not emerged, by now would understand that the present tension in many streets of the South would, I am con- the South is a necessary phase of the transi- vinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further tion from an obnoxious negative peace, in convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as which the Negro passively accepted his unjust "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in of us who employ nonviolent direct actions and which all men will respect the dignity and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, worth of human personality .... millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and . . . I stand in the middle of two opposing despair, seek solace and security in black forces in the Negro community. One is a force nationalist ideologies-a development that of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a would inevitably lead to a frightening racial result of long years of oppression, are so nightmare .... completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and From "Letter from Birmingham Jai!," April 16, 1963,first economic security and because in some ways published in The Christian Century, Copyright ©1963by they profit by segregation, have unconsciously the Christian Century Foundation.

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Great Debates in American History . Continued

The following excerpts are from the autobiog- NAACPhad charged that other agencies' raphy of Malcolm X. demonstration, highly publicized, had at- tracted a major part of the civil rights dona- In Support of Violence tions-while the NAACPgot left holding the Not long ago, the black man in America was bag, supplying costly bail and legal talent for fed a dose of another form of the weakening, the other organizations' jailed demonstrators. lulling and deluding effects of so-called "inte- It was like a movie. The next scene was the gration." It was that "Farce on Washington," I "big six" civil rights Negro "leaders" meeting in call it. New York City with the white head of a big ... For twenty or more years the March on philanthropic agency. They were told that their Washington idea had floated around among money-wrangling in public was damaging their Negroes. And, spontaneously, suddenly now, image. And a reported $800,000 was donated that idea caught on .... to a United Civil Rights Leadership council Nothing since Joe Louis had so coalesced the that was quickly organized by the "big six." masses of Negroes. Groups of Negroes were Now, what had instantly achieved black talking of getting to Washington any way they unity? The white man's money. What string could-in rickety old cars, on buses, hitch- was attached to the money? Advice. Not only hiking-walking, even, if they had to. They was there this donation, but another compa- envisioned thousands of black brothers con- rable sum was promised, for sometime later verging together upon Washington-to lie down on, after the March ... obviously if all went in the streets, on airport runways, on govern- well. ment lawns-demanding of the Congress and The original "angry" March on Washington the White House some concrete civil rights was now about to be entirely changed. action. Massive international publicity projected the This was a national bitterness; militant, "big six" as March on Washington leaders. It unorganized, and leaderless. Predominantly, it was news tc those angry grass-roots Negroes was young Negroes, defiant of whatever might steadily adding steam to their March plans. be the consequences, sick and tired of the They probably assumed that now those famous black man's neck under the white man's heel. "leaders" were endorsing and joining them. The white man had plenty of good reasons Invited next to join the March were four for nervous worry. The right spark-some famous white public figures: one Catholic, one unpredictable emotional chemistry-could set Jew, one Protestant, and one labor boss. off a black uprising. The government knew that The massive publicity now gently hinted that thousands of milling, angry blacks not only the "big ten" would "supervise" the March on could completely disrupt Washington-but Washington's "mood," and its "direction." they could erupt in Washington. The four white figures began nodding. The The White House speedily invited in the word spread fast among so-called "liberal" major civil rights Negro "leaders." They were Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and laborites: it asked to stop the planned march. They truth- was "democratic" to join this black March. And. fully said they hadn't begun it, they had no suddenly, the previously March-nervous control over it-the idea was national, sponta- whites began announcing they were going. neous' unorganized, and leaderless. In other It was as if electrical current shot through words, it was a black powder keg.... the ranks of bourgeois Negroes=-the very so- .. The White House, with a fanfare of interna- called "middle-class" and "upper-class" who tional publicity, "approved," "endorsed," and had earlier been deploring the March on "welcomed" a March on Washington. The big Washington talk by grass-roots Negroes. civil rights organizations right at this time had But white people, now, were going to march. been publicly squabbling about donations. The Why, some downtrodden jobless, hungry New York Times had broken the story. The Negro might have gotten trampled. Those

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Great Debates in American History Continued

"integration" -mad Negroes practically ran over should protect and defend themselves from each other trying to find out where to sign up. those Negroes, using arms if necessary. And I The "angry blacks" march suddenly had been feel that when the law fails to protect Negroes made chic .... from whites' attack, then those Negroes should The morning of the March, any rickety use arms, if necessary, to defend themselves." carloads of angry, dusty, sweating small-town ... I believe it's a crime for anyone who is Negroes would have gotten lost among the being brutalized to continue to accept that chartered jet planes, railroad cars, and air- brutality without doing something to defend conditioned buses. What originally was himself .... planned to be an angry riptide, one English "I am for violence if non-violence means we newspaper aptly described now as "the gentle continue postponing a solution to the Ameri- flood." ... can black man's problem-just to avoid vio- Yes, I was there. I observed that circus. Who lence. I don't go for non-violence if it also ever heard of angry revoluttonists all harmo- means a delayed solution. To me a delayed nizing "We Shall Overcome ... Suum Day... " solution is a non-solution. Or I'll say it another while tripping and swaying along arm-In-arm way. If it must take violence to get the black with the very people they were supposed to be man his human rights in this country, I'm for angrily revolting against? Who ever heard of violence exactly as you know the Irish, the angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet Poles, or Jews would be if they were flagrantly together with their oppressor in lilypad park discriminated against. I am just as they would pools, with gospels and guitars and "I Have a be in that case, and they would be for vio- Dream" speeches? .. "1believe in anger. The lence-no matter what the consequences, no Bible says there is a time for anger." ... I'm matter who was hurt by the violence." not for wanton violence, I'm for justice. I feel that if white people were attacked by Negroes- if the forces of law prove unable, or inad- From The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, with Alex Haley. Copyright © 1964 by Alex Haley and Malcolm equate, or reluctant to protect those whites X. Copyright © 1965 by Alex Haley and Betty Shabazz. from those Negroes-then those white people Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

Questions to Think About Use information from the excerpts to answer the following questions on an additional sheet of paper. Comprehension 1. What does King mean by "direct action"?

2. How does Kingjustify civil disobedience?

3. What are the conditions under which Malcolm X advocates violence? Thinking Critically 1. Making Comparisons How are the views of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X similar? How are they different? 2. Expressing Problems Clearly Why does Malcolm X call the March on Washing- ton a "Farce on Washington"? 3. Predicting Consequences If Afrtcan-Americans had resorted mainly to violence rather than using nonviolence to achieve their goal of racial equality, what effect might it have had on future relations. between whites and African-Americans?