One of the added “benefits” of teaching middle and high school students for 25 years is constantly being reminded of how old I am. This occurs often when I am teaching what is to students “history” and what is to me my past. For example, I have taught young men and women of varying ages about the struggle for civil rights in the United States and have referenced my growing up in Kentucky in the 1960s when schools were still mostly segregated and whites and African-Americans lived in what seemed like different worlds. I entered high school the same year as Louisville began court-ordered desegregation; decades later, I can still vividly recall the riots that closed schools and shut down highways.
Again and again when I have taught this history, I have returned to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as an inspiring foundational document in the civil rights struggle. By way of background, King was arrested for violating Alabama’s injunction against demonstrations in Birmingham on Good Friday, April 12, 1963, and he was placed in solitary confinement; while in jail, he composed this extraordinary letter to explain the reasons for, and the nature of, the civil rights movement to some clergy who had criticized him for leading the protests. Among the many quotable passages from this essay are the following:
“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.”
“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
Although we have come a long way since my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, recent events in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, remind us that we still have a long way to go to realize the goals Dr. King expressed in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and in his many other documents and speeches. Perhaps a further study of King’s writings may offer inspiration and motivation to continue working for peace and justice during difficult times.
