Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Letter from a Birmingham Jail Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

obnoxious negative peace

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.

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I am uncomfortable being around people who have choices but who choose to do work they are not proud of. 

the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows

In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?