Why We Can't Wait is a 1964 book by Martin Luther King Jr. about the nonviolent movement against racial segregation in the United States, and specifically the 1963 Birmingham campaign. The book describes 1963 as a landmark year in the civil rights movement, and as the beginning of America's "Negro Revolution".
The seed of the book is King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail". The letter became nationally known and received interest from the New York publishing world, which Stanley Levison relayed to King in May 1963. [1] Soon after, Levison made a deal with New American Library publisher Victor Weybright, who suggested that the theme of not waiting be used for the title. Weybright also gave permission for "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to be republished in national newspapers and magazines; it appeared in July 1963 as "Why the Negro Won't Wait". [2]
King began working on the book later in 1963, with assistance from Levison and Clarence Jones. [3] Some early work on the text was done by Al Duckett (also a participant in the movement). King and Levison eventually dismissed Duckett and then Nat Lamar, and Levison did some work on the text himself. Bayard Rustin also contributed, as did editor Hermine I. Popper. [4] [5]
Rustin said: "I don't want to write something for somebody where I know he is acting like a puppet. I want to be a real ghost and write what the person wants to say. And that is what I always knew was true in the case of Martin. I would never write anything that wasn't what he wanted to say. I understood him well enough." [6]
The book largely reproduces the text of "Letter from Birmingham Jail", with some editorial changes. [7] King writes in a footnote: "Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative in polishing it for publication." [8]
Why We Can't Wait was published by Harper & Row in July 1964. [3] The paperback edition cost 60¢.
The book describes 1963 as the beginning of "the Negro revolution". It seeks to describe the historical events that led up to this revolution, and to explain why this revolution was nonviolent. [9] King seeks to describe this history because of how quickly it has become visible to America at large, and because of its importance in events to come. He writes:
Just as lightning makes no sound until it strikes, the Negro Revolution generated quietly. But when it struck, the revealing flash of its power and the impact of its sincerity and fervor displayed a force of a frightening intensity. Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse, and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper. [...]
Because there is more to come; because American society is bewildered by the spectacle of the Negro in revolt; because the dimensions are vast and the implications deep in a nation with twenty million Negroes, it is important to understand the history that is being made today. [10]
King gives several reasons why the Negro Revolution erupted in 1963:
King goes on to describe why nonviolent resistance was so powerful. One of its major strengths involved changing the function of jails in society. Previously, the jail was used as an element of intimidation: authorities used the threat of pain and isolation in jail to control many separate individuals. Large groups of demonstrators, however, had the power to fill up jails—and to politicize the act of being jailed, thereby making jail less of a punishment. [18] He condemns tokenism as an act of deception that offers false pride without real power: "The Negro wanted to feel pride in his race? With tokenism, the solution was simple. If all twenty million Negroes would keep looking at Ralph Bunche, the one man in so exalted a post would generate such a volume of pride that it could be cut into portions and served to everyone." [19] King distinguishes between tokenism and a "modest start" to equality, writing that tokenism serves to stifle dissent and protest, not to start a process. [20]
He criticizes other approaches to social change for Blacks, including the quietism of Booker T. Washington, the elitism of W. E. B. Du Bois's appeal to The Talented Tenth, the Pan-Africanism of Marcus Garvey, and the litigation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). King argues that none of these leaders and philosophies held the promise of real mass change for all African Americans. [21]
King describes "Bull Connor's Birmingham" as an anachronistic city whose social order resembled colonial-era slavery. He writes that Blacks lack basic human rights, and are ruled by violence and terror. [22]
He chronicles preliminary demonstrations held by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACHR) [23] and then describes Bull Connor's attempts to intimidate the SCLC. [24] He tells about how the SCLC nevertheless planned the Birmingham campaign, believing that if segregation could be overcome in Birmingham it could have effects across the entire United States. [25]
King describes the alliance between the SCLC and the ACHR, and reproduces the text of a "Commitment Card" used for recruiting. (Volunteers who signed the card pledged to meditate on the life of Jesus, pray daily, observe the interests of the community, and to seek "justice and reconciliation—not victory".) [26] He tells the story of how he was imprisoned in the course of demonstrations [27] and then reproduces his (already and thereafter) famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail". [28]
The city government became increasingly willing to negotiate as demonstrations continued. King describes mass participation by young people, full jails, and international media attention fueled by powerful photographs. Negotiators reached an agreement on Friday, May 10, 1963: the city promised desegregation within 90 days, jobs for Blacks in local industry, release of those jailed during the campaign, and ongoing formal diplomacy between Black and White leaders. [29]
The agreement triggered an assassination attempt on King, orchestrated by the local Ku Klux Klan. The bombing at King's hotel room triggered a civil disturbance in Birmingham which brought in the police forces and then the National Guard. [30]
Thousands of student demonstrators were expelled from school by the Birmingham Board of Education. The decision was challenged by the NAACP and overruled by Judge Elbert P. Tuttle in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. [31]
King advocates continued action in Birmingham, comparing the campaign to the Battle of Bunker Hill—the beginning of organization in a revolutionary army. He warns against complacency in the wake of the Birmingham demonstrations, suggesting that revolt is only the beginning of revolution. [32]
He calls for multi-racial unity, suggesting that Africans were not the only group oppressed in America: "Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society." [33] He argues that the summer of 1963 has made most Whites in America more receptive to the idea of legal equality for Blacks. [34]
He describes the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, praising the participation of White churches but frustrated by the neutrality of the AFL–CIO. He notes that millions of Americans watched scenes from the March on television and expresses hope for the future of this medium. [35]
The conclusion provides an explanation of "why we can't wait": that Blacks must no longer move towards freedom, but assert their freedom. King writes: "It is because the Negro knows that no person—as well as no nation—can truly exist half slave and half free that he has embroiders upon his banners the significant word now." [36] He calls for a Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, including reparations for unpaid wages. [37] He holds out hope for a coalition with poor Whites and organized labor. [38] He suggests that the civil rights movement may be able to work with President Lyndon Johnson, cautioning that political work is dangerous but necessary. [39] He ends by saying that if the civil rights revolution succeeds it may spread nonviolence worldwide, ending the nuclear arms race and bringing world peace. [40]
The book was generally well received by the mainstream press. [3] It also afforded the Letter from Birmingham Jail its widest circulation yet. [2]
King traveled to promote the book, while also still involved in the St. Augustine Movement. [41]
Why We Can't Wait was an important part of the effort to make the civil rights struggle known to national and international audiences. Describing Birmingham as "the most segregated city in America" transformed it into a symbol for segregation and inequality at large. [42]
Adbusters cited Why We Can't Wait (and the Poor People's Campaign) in September 2011 as an inspiration for Occupy Wall Street. [43]
In October 2011, the Obama administration started using the slogan "We Can't Wait", based on the plan to enact policies despite a resistant Congress. [44]
The book has received much contemporary critical acclaim, and was ranked #78 on Modern Library's list of the 100 best non-fiction books written in English. [45]
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Christian minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A Black church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
The civil rights movement was a social movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country. The movement had its origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century and had its modern roots in the 1940s, although the movement made its largest legislative gains in the 1960s after years of direct actions and grassroots protests. The social movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. At the march, final speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism and racial segregation.
The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. Responding to being referred to as an "outsider", King writes: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Children's Crusade, or Children's March, was a march by over 5,000 school students in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2–10, 1963. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about segregation in their city. Many children left their schools and were arrested, set free, and then arrested again the next day. The marches were stopped by the head of police, Bull Connor, who brought fire hoses to ward off the children and set police dogs after the children. This event compelled President John F. Kennedy to publicly support federal civil rights legislation and eventually led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
James Luther Bevel was an American minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education, Bevel initiated, strategized, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era: the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade, the 1965 Selma voting rights movement, and the 1966 Chicago open housing movement. He suggested that SCLC call for and join a March on Washington in 1963. Bevel strategized the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, which contributed to Congressional passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups were assisted by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was meant to draw attention to the brutally enforced racial segregation practices in Southwest Georgia. However, many leaders in SNCC were fundamentally opposed to King and the SCLC's involvement. They felt that a more democratic approach aimed at long-term solutions was preferable for the area other than King's tendency towards short-term, authoritatively-run organizing.
"Message to the Grass Roots" is a public speech delivered by black civil rights activist Malcolm X. The speech was delivered on November 10, 1963, at the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference, which was held at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Malcolm X described the difference between the "Black revolution" and the "Negro revolution", he contrasted the "house Negro" and the "field Negro" during slavery and in the modern age, and he criticized the 1963 March on Washington. "Message to the Grass Roots" was ranked 91st in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address.
Milton Louis Grafman was an American rabbi who led Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1941 until his retirement in 1975 and then served as Rabbi Emeritus from 1975 until his death in 1995. He was one of eight local clergy members who signed a public statement criticizing the Birmingham Campaign, to which Martin Luther King Jr. responded in his Letter from Birmingham Jail.
The St. Augustine movement was a part of the wider Civil Rights Movement, taking place in St. Augustine, Florida from 1963 to 1964. It was a major event in the city's long history and had a role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was an American civil rights organization in Birmingham, Alabama, which coordinated boycotts and sponsored federal lawsuits aimed at dismantling segregation in Birmingham and Alabama during the civil rights movement. Fred Shuttlesworth, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, served as president of the group from its founding in 1956 until 1969. The ACMHR's crowning moment came during the pivotal Birmingham campaign which it coordinated along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the spring of 1963.
The Baldwin–Kennedy meeting of May 24, 1963 was an attempt to improve race relations in the United States. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited novelist James Baldwin, along with a large group of cultural leaders, to meet Kennedy in an apartment in New York City. The meeting became antagonistic and the group reached no consensus. The black delegation generally felt that Kennedy did not understand the full extent of racism in the United States. Ultimately the meeting demonstrated the urgency of the racial situation and was a positive turning point in Kennedy's attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement.
Council for United Civil Rights Leadership (CUCRL) was an umbrella group formed in June 1963 to organize and regulate the Civil Rights Movement. The Council brought leaders of Black civil rights organizations together with white donors in business and philanthropy. It successfully arranged the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with the Kennedy administration.
This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down is a 1989 autobiography written by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy. The book charts his life and work with his best friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in their leadership of the Civil Rights Movement to help African Americans obtain equal rights with white Americans. His book engendered much controversy due to Abernathy's allegations of King's infidelity the night before he was assassinated.
The 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protest was part of a series of events during the civil rights movement in the United States which occurred on June 18, 1964, at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida. The campaign between June and July 1964 was led by Robert Hayling, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, C. T. Vivian and Fred Shuttlesworth, among others. St. Augustine was chosen to be the next battleground against racial segregation on account of it being both highly racist yet also relying heavily on the northern tourism dollar. Furthermore, the city was due to celebrate its 400th anniversary the following year, which would heighten the campaign's profile even more. Nightly marches to the slave market were organized, which were regularly attacked and saw the marchers beaten.
