Why We Can T Wait Speech

In the book Why We Can’t Wait, by Martin Luther King, Jr., the struggle for African-American equality is kicked into high gear when a Civil Rights leader, King, takes action through his nonviolent resistance movement to display the issues of racial segregation and discrimination for the whole nation to be aware. In the year 1963, King introduces his readers to the challenges he faced in one of the most segregated cities in America: Birmingham, Alabama. Ran by a segregationist by the name of Bull Connor, the city is dominated by white supremacy and suppresses all the unconstructive, insufferable prejudice towards African Americans that occurs in the streets. Concerning the movement towards civil rights equality, Martin Luther King, Jr. presented

To start off the campaign, the leaders of the movement, King, Shuttlesworth, and Abernathy, sent a few demonstrations out to emanate the atmosphere with tension. Eating at “white” lunch counters sent the first of many to jail. King had to make sure the protestors he dispatched were suitable to resist retaliation from physical violence by the police. Making sure they were weaponless, this ensured the progress of the movement and its likeliness to be effective. Little do the people of Birmingham know what is to come soon. The next act of civil disobedience was a march to City Hall. When told to leave, the forty-two men and women civilly refused. This led to forty-two arrests; however, they were cheering and singing harmoniously. Making their way, slowly but surely, into libraries, churches, and even marching at voter-registration drives, more and more African-American’s were standing behind bars as a new day arises. Finally, the city’s government thought they could overcome the movement by placing a court order to halt civil disobedience until court day. Being one of the most important decisions in the crusade, King, with much consideration, disobeyed the order and continued with the peaceful resistance. This completely shocked the government officials as well as the rest of the public. King, himself, even went to jail on Good Friday in 1963. This whole movement, and the civil disobedience involved, is simply the moral act of African-Americans going against prejudiced laws, and thereafter respectfully surrendering to the consequences. This tactic proved to be effective and, in the long run, laws were revoked, social integration transpired, and African-Americans finally felt like they belonged to their own