MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail was written in response to "A Call for Unity", an open letter published by white Alabama clergymen, who called the civil rights efforts of 1963 "unwise and untimely."
The clergy called on black protesters to leave the streets and take their struggle to the courts (as if they couldn't and weren't doing both). They urged black protesters to "observe the principles of law order."
This should serve as a reminder that "calls for unity" and appeals for respectability can silence calls for reparations, justice, and actual peace.
History never occurs in a vacuum. Dig a bit and you’ll see.
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