Luther king jr. Was arrested in my hometown of birmingham, alabama. His crime, leading a peaceful march to protest the indignity suffered by the black community and the jim crow era. He had violated the ban on public demonstrations which targeted the growing resistance of africanamericans to the injustices they were insuffering. While in solitary confinement in birmingham, dr. King wrote what became known as the letter from the birmingham jail, a stinging response to a group of white clergy in alabama who had denounced his tactics and questioned the wisdom and timing of his arrival in birmingham. They insisted he was an outside agitator coming to alabama to instigate trouble. Dr. King responded famously. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. In his letter he rejected the idea that africanamericans should be more patient for change in the face of the daily indignities inflicted by segregation, in the face of threats of violation. There comes a time, he wrote, when the cup of endurance runs over. Well, i did not experience this struggle as a young child, a young white child growing up in the nearby birmingham suburb. I spent much of my adult life and career as a lawyer and history, absorbing its lessons. I often returned to dr. Kings letter, to understand the forces at play at the height of the civil rights struggle. Each time i read his words, i am in awe of his courage and resolve in the face of such incredible personal risk. While we have come so far and while we have made great progress in loosening the binds of Racial Justice that constrained and suffocated our nation for so many years, we have not yet fully relieved the weight of our countrys abominable history of slavery, segregation and racial discrimination. And thats why i rise today. Its our civic duty, i believe our moral obligation, to remember dr. Kings words and his deeds, to tell his story, to appreciate that 1963 was not all that long ago, to reflect on how many things have changed and how many have not. Our obligation is to honor dr. Kings legacy by joining him in envisioning the mountaintop and working to make real his dream that our nation will rise up. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. Thats why we rise today. Dr. King saw an america that had the potential to live up to its lofty ideals where every man, woman, and child had an equal opportunity to succeed and to live life free from discrimination. He saw the good in our country when it would have been easier for him to see the bad, it is that positive spirit and clarity of vision that made his legacy so enduring. Today, madam president , we will honor that legacy by reading the letter from the birmingham jail in its entirety in the senate chamber. I am honored to be joined today by Martin Luther king iii, who is in the gallery, the oldest son of dr. King and Coretta Scott king, as well as my old friend, charles steel, president of the christian Leadership Conference and reverend. Together, they are at the forefront of the modern Civil Rights Movement and personally carry on the legacy that dr. King bequeathed us. Im also very grateful that several of my colleagues on both sides of the political aisle will stand with me to read portions of the letter today. I want to thank senators Lamar Alexander of tennessee, ted cruz of texas, Kamala Harris of california, tim kaine of virginia, and Lisa Murkowski of alaska for participating in this historic reading today. I encourage the rest of our colleagues and anyone in the gallery or watching on television at home, that we might still learn today about this powerful message of justice and freedom of oppression and the indifference of people who stand idly by when their fellow americans are persecuted. To begin the reading of the letter, id like to yield to my colleague from tennessee, my friend, senator alexander. Madam president. Senator from tennessee. Thank you, madam president. Madam president , i thank the senator from alabama for including me today in the reading of dr. Kings letter from the birmingham jail. Senator jones has standing to do this not just because he is from alabama, but because of his work as a United States attorney prosecuting klansmen, who blew up a church on 16th street in birmingham, can killing little children. Senator jones said all of this was not too long ago. It was not too long ago for me. I remember a day on august 28, 1963, i was a student at that time at New York University law school with an internship in the United States department of justice, and it was a hot summer day and the streets were filled with a march on washington, and it was about lunchtime, i believe, that i went outside into that crowed and i heard a booming voice from a man who was standing on the steps of the lincoln memorial, and i heard the words that he hoped that his four little children one day would live in a nation where theyll not be judge bid the color of their skin. Im not sure at that time at that age i understood fully what i was seeing and hearing, but i was hearing dr. King with his i have a dream speech. A year earlier, in 1962, a year earlier, in 1962, i had been a senior at nashville, vanderbilt university, not that long ago, but a lot has changed since then. And vanderbilt, a prestigious institution, was just in that year desegregating its undergraduate school. I was a part of that effort. But even then black americans couldnt go to the same restaurants, stay in the same motels, go to the same bathrooms. Even then, and it was not that long ago. Four months before i heard dr. King speak in august of 1963, he wrote a letter from the birmingham jail. The 16th of april, 1963, my dear fellow clergymen, this is dr. Kings letter, while confined here in birmingham in the Birmingham City jail, i came across your recent statement calling my recent activities unwise and untimely, a quote. Seldom do i pause to answer critics of my ideals. If i sought to answer all the criticism that crossed my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything except correspondence in the course of the day, and i would have no time for constructive work, but since i feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, i want to try to answer your statement in what i hope will be patient and reasonable terms. Dr. Kings letter went on to say, i think i should indicate why i am here in birmingham since youve been influenced by the view which argues against, quote, outsiders coming in, unquote. I have the honor as serving as president of the southern christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern State with headquarters in atlanta, georgia. We have some 85 affiliated organizations across the south, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for human rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and Financial Resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct Action Program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented. And when the hour came, we lived up to our promise. So i, along with several of my members of my staff are here because i was invited here. I am here because i have organizational ties here, but more basically, i am in birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the profits of the eighth century before christ left their villages and carried their thus sayeth the lord far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns and just as the apostle paul left his village of tarsus and carried the gospel of jesus christ to the far corners of the greco roman world, so am i compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown. Like paul, i must constantly respond to the macedonian call for aid. Moreover, im cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in birmingham. 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 directly. Never again can we afford to live with a narrow provential outsi outsider idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States could never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. You deplore the demonstrations taking place in birmingham, but your statement, i am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. Dr. Kings letter continues. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate the demonstrations are taking place in birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the citys white power structure left the Negro Community with no alternative. In any Nonviolent Campaign there are four basic steps, collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation, self purification and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that Racial Injustice engulf s birmingham is the community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced unjust treatment in the courts. There have been unsolved bombings of negro churches in birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, negro leaders sought to confer with the city fathers, but there was no goodfashion negotiation. Dr. Kings letter continues. Then, last september came the opportunity to talk with the leaders of birminghams economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants. For example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for human rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned. The others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of selfpurification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence and we repeatedly asked ourselves, are you able to accept blows without retaliating . Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail . Dr. Kings letter continues. We decided to schedule our direct Action Program for the easter season, realizing that, except for christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic Withdrawal Program would be the byproduct of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change. Then it occurred to us that birminghams Mayoral Election was coming up in march, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the commissioner of public safety, eugene bull conner, had piled up enough votes to be in the runoff, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the runoff so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. Dr. King continued. Like many others, we waited to see pl conner defeated and to this end, we endured postpo postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct Action Program could be delayed no longer. I yield the floor for the senator from california, senator harris. Thank you to the great senator from tennessee. And dr. King continues. You may well ask, why direct action . Why sitins, marches, and so forth . Isnt negotiation a better path . You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking, but i must confess that i am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the Majestic Heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct Action Program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I, therefore, concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue. One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that i and my associates have taken in birmingham is untimely. Some have asked why didnt you give the new City Administration time to act . The only answer i can give to this query is that the New BirminghamAdministration Must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to birmingham. While mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than mr. Conner, they are both segregationists, dedicated to the maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation, but he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, i must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined, legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture, but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. We know from painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, i have yet to engage in a direct Action Campaign that was, quote, unquote, well timed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now, ive heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity. This wait has almost always meant never. We must come to see with one of our distinguished jurists that justice too long delayed is justice denied. We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and godgiven rights. The nations of asia and africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horseandbuggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim, when you have seen hatefilled policemen curse, kick and even kill your Black Brothers and sisters, when you see the vast negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society, when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering, as you seek to explain to your 6yearold daughter why she cant go to the public Amusement Park that has just been advertised on television and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that funtown is closed to colored children and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people, when you have to concoct an answer for a 5yearold son who is asking daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean . When you have to take a crosscountry drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you, when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white and colored, when your first name middle name becomes boy, however old you are, and your last name becomes john, and your wife and mother are never given the respected title misses. When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments, when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness, then you will understand why i find it difficult to wait. Id now like to yield to my colleague, senator cruz from texas. Thank you, madam president. The senator from texas. Madam president , dr. Kings profoundly just and moral letter from a birmingham jail continued. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Courts decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others . The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with st. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all. Now, what is the difference between the two . How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust . A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of god. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of st. Thomas aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation. To use the terminology of the jewish philosopher martin buber substitutes an iit relationship for an ithou relationship, and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence, segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of mans tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness . Thus it is that i can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court for it is morally right, and i can urge them to disobey segregation ordinance for they are morally wrong. Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power Majority Group compels a Minority Group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a law that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust, if it is inflicted on a minority, that as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of alabama, which set up that states segregation laws, was democratically elected . Throughout alabama, all source of devious methods are used to prevent negros from becoming registered voters. And there are some counties in which even though negros constitute a majority of the population, not a single negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured . Sometimes a law is just on its face, and unjust in its application. For instance, i have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with having an ordinance which requires a permanent for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation, and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege to peacefully assemble and protest. I hope you are able to see the distinction im trying to point out. In no sense do i advocate abating or defying the law as would the rabid segregationists. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly. Lovingly. And with the willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscious tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sub limely in the refusal of shadrach, and meshach, and abednego to obey the laws of nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law, that was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unsust law was roman empire. To a degree, Academic Freedom is a reality today because socrates practiced civil disbeans. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience. We should never forget that everything that Adolph Hitler did in germany was quoteunquote legal, and everything that the hungarian Freedom Fighters did in hungary was quoteunquote illegal. It was kwoegs unquote illegal to aid and comfort a jew in hitlers germany. Even so, i am sure that, had i lived in germany at the time, i would have aided and comforted my you irbrothers. If today i lived in a communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian Faith are see pressed, i would openly advocate disobeying that countrys antireligious laws. I must make two honest confessions to you, my christians and jewish brothers. First, i must confess that over the past few years, i have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negros great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white citizens counselor, 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 paternalisticcally believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom, who lives by a mythical concept of time, and who constantly advises the negro to wait for a quote more event season. Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and that when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the south is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up bust must be opened with all its ugliness, and the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all of the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of National Opinion before it can be cured. Madam speaker, i yield to the senator from virginia. I thank the senator from texas. Madam president the senator from virginia. In your statement, you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion . Isnt this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery . Isnt this like condemning socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries resip tated the act by the misguided populous in which they made him drink hemlock . Isnt this like condemning jesus because his unique god consciousness and never ceasing devotion to gods will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion . We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic Constitutional Rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in texas. He write, quote, all christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are too great a religious hurry. It has taken christianity almost 2,000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of christ take time to come to earth. Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more, i feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with god, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transfor form our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our National Policy from the quicksand of Racial Injustice to the solid rock of human dignity. You speak of our activity in birmingham as extreme. At first, i was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that i stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro Community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of negros who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of some bodiness, that they have adjusted to segregation, and in part a few middle class negros who because they have a degree of academic and economic security, and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. Its expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best being elia muhammads muslim movement. Nourished by the negros frustration over the continued existence existence racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in america, who have absolutely repudiated christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an in core gibl devil. I tried to stand between these two forces saying that we need emulate neither, the do nothingism, of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more Excellent Way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to god that through the influence of the negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the south would, i am convinced, be flowing with blood, and i am further convinced that if our White Brothers dismiss as rabble rousers, and outside agitators, those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of negros will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist dialogue, in black nationalist ide lolg, a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearns for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the american negro. Something within has reminded him of his birth right of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the zeitgeist and with his Black Brothers of africa and his brown and yellow brothers of asia, south america, and the caribbean, the United States negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the Promised Land of Racial Justice. If one recognizes that this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro Community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The negro has many pentup resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march. Let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall. Let him go on freedom rides. And try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence. This is not a threat but a fact of history. So i have not said to my people, get rid of your discontent. Rather, i have tried to say that this is normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the Creative Outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though i was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as i continued to think about the matter i gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not jesus an extremist for love, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Was not amos an extremist for justice . Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream . S with not paul an extremist for the christian gospel, i bear in my bod yit marks of the lord jesus. Was not Martin Luther an extremist . Here i stand, i cannot do otherwise, so help me god. And john bunyan, i will stay in jail to the end of my days before i make a butch ry of my conscience. And abraham lincoln, this nation cannot survive half slave and half free. And thomas jefferson, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love . Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice . In that dramatic scene on calvarys hill, three men were crucified. We must never foreget that all three were crucified for the same crime, the crime of extremism. Who were extremists for immoral ty and thus fell below their environment. The other, jesus christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the south, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative streextremists. I yield to the senator from alaska. I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps i was too optimistic. Perhaps i expected too much. I suppose i should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yerngs of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our White Brothers in the south have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some, such as ralph mcgill, lillian smith, harry golden, James Mcbride dabbs, ann braiden, and sara patton boyle. Some have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the south. They have languished in filthy, roachinfested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as dirty n expletive lovers. Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment, and sensed the need for powerful action, antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I kmencommend you, reverend stalling, for your christian stand on this past sunday, in welcoming negros to your Worship Service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago. But despite these notable exceptions, i must honestly reiterate that i have been zointd disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church, who has nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its spiritual blessing, and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen. When i was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in montgomery, alabama, a few years ago, i felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white minister, priests, and rabbis of the south would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement, and misrepresenting its leaders. All too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows. In spite of my shattered dreams, i came to birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause, and with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again, i have been disappointed. I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but i have longed to hear white ministers declare, follow they dont career, because integration is morally right and because the negro is your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the negro, i have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies, and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, i have heard many ministers say, those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern. And i have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, unbiblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. I have traveled the length and breadth of alabama, mississippi, and all the other Southern States. On sweltering summer days, and crisp autumn mornings, i have looked at the souths beautiful churches with their lofty spires bounti pointsi pointsing heaven ward. I have held the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over i have found myself asking, what kind of people worship here . Who is their god . Where were their voices when the lips of governor barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification . Where were they when governor wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred . Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest . Yes, these are the questions that are still in my mind. In deep disappointment, i have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, i love the church. How could i do otherwise . I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, i see the church as the body of christ, but oh, how we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists. There was a time when the church was very powerful, in the time when the early christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. 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. Whenever the early christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the christians for being disturbers of the peace, and outside agitators. But the christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were a colony of heaven, called to obey god rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too godintoxicated to be astronomically intimidated. By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infant side and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the churchs silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of god is upon the church as never before. If Todays Church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of million, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century. Every day, i meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust. Perhaps i have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world . Perhaps i must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the Church Within the church, as the true ekklesia, and the hope of the world. But again, i am thankful to god that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity, and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of albany, georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the south on torturous rides for freedom. Mr. President , i yield to my friend in alabama and thank him for his leadership. Thank you. Dr. King continues. Yes, they have gone to jail us with. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow minister, but they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the Dark Mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of they dont sisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, i have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of america is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with americas destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of jefferson etched the majestic words of the declaration of independence, across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebearers labored in this country without wages, they made cotton king, they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice, and shameful humiliation. And yet, out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom, because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of god are embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing i feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham Police force for keeping order and preventing violence. I doubt that you would so warmly commended the police force, if you had seen the dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent negros. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and Inhumane Treatment of negros here in the city jail. If you were to watch them push and curse old negro women and young negro girls. If you were to see them slap and kick old negro men and young boys. If you were to observe them as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food, because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham Police department. It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense, they have conducted themselves rather nonviolently, in public. But for what purpose . To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years, i have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now i must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was chief pritchett in albany, georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the im porl end of Racial Injustice. As t. S. Elliot has said, the last temptation is the greatest treason. To do the right deed for the wrong reason. I wish you had commended the negro sit inners and demonstrators of birmingham for their sub lime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day, the south will recognize its real heroes. They will be the james merediths, with the noble sense of purpose, that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered negro women, symbolized in a 72yearold woman in montgomery, alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profund ty to all who inquired about her weariness, my feets is tired, but my soul is at rest. They will be the Young High School and college student, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in a church, sitting at lunch counters and willing to go to jail for conscience sake. One day, the south will know that when these disinherited children of god sat down at the lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the american dream, and for the most sacred values in our the you dajudeo christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the formulation of the constitution and the declaration of independence. Never before have i written so long a letter. I am afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter, if i had been writing from a comfortable desk, but 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 . If i have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, i beg you to forgive me. If i have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, i beg god to forgive me. I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clerg iman and a christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial pres prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our feardrenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their sicintillating beauty. Yours, for the cause of peace and brotherhood, Martin Luther king, jr. Mr. President , i am struck by the gratuitous phrase in the closing of this remarkable letter. One day, the south will recognize its heroes, a south will and has recognized its real heroes, indeed. Heroes like dr. King, like rosa parks, and my old friend fred shuttlesworth. He rose like congressman john lewis, and famer, and ida b. Wells. Like the countless others who stood alongside them in the fight for civil rights. Like the innocent victim swept up in the brutal crackdowns during the hopeful movement, tore universal human dignity. We carry on their legacy in our daily lives. In our schools. Our houses of worship. Our workplaces. And throughout our society. And that includes the institution of the United States senate. And it is carried on in the work of dr. Kings family members, like Martin Luther king iii. Dr. King wrote his letter in the midst of the struggle. And knew that much work still lay ahead. Less than six months after his arrest, the klan in birmingham planted a bomb outside the ladys lounge of the 16th street baptist church, killing four innocent young africanamerican girls. A year later, though, Congress Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And the year after that, the Voting Rights act of 1965. Historic changes were afoot. But despite this incredibly historic progress, or perhaps because of it, in april, 1968, dr. Martin luther king jr. Was assassinated in memphis, tennessee. He was just 39 years old. He gave his life for this cause. He gave his life in a struggle that so many gave their lives to. But we have to remember, that this is not ancient history. We know that we still have our challenges, albeit in a world that has no doubt benefitted tremendously from the progress he achieved, but it is still a work in progress. It will always be a work in progress. If we truly believe in carrying on his legacy, we must recognize that we cannot stand idly by when we see injustice. We cannot stand idly by when we see a reemergence of hateful rhetoric in our public discourse. Weve seen it before. Weve seen it before in birmingham and elsewhere. Weve seen before the devastating violence that can follow, and it lives with us today. It lives with us today. In tragedy. Like charleston, and sharlt charlottesville, and pittsburgh, and now new new zealand. We need to strive for civility and make sure we dont live in a country that bears each other in contempt. That bears repeating. We talk a lot in this chamber about civility and respect and dignity, but the fact of the matter is, when we leave this chamber, and you go out into the world, people will hold each other in contempt more so than it is just a public discourse. That has got to change, ladies and gentlemen. It has got to change. Importantly, we, each of us, should continue to do our part, that to ensure that the art of a moral universe continues toward justice. Thank you, mr. President. And thank you to my colleagues, who joined me this evening, for this historic event. It has been an honor and a privilege. I yield the floor. This is American History tv. On cspan 3. Where each weekend, we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our nations past. Next, on lectures of history, university of nebraska lincoln Professor William thomas, teaches a class on some of the lawsuits brought by slaves who sued for their freedom during the antibell lum period. He outlines the different legal arguments they used and emphasized how most suits affected not just one person but entire families. Okay, good morning, everybody. Lets get started. So today, our subject is freedom suits. Suits brought by enslaved families, and how they posed a challenge to the constitution, and under the constitution, how they posed a challenge to american slavery. Now, most of us are familiar