-On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations.
-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 an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture.
-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
- have 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.
-I must honestly reiterate that I have been 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 was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
These are my five quotes. The first four are those that relate to the material that we've been reading, but the last is one that I found personally interesting. I'll do that one last though. I was surprised by the amount of similarity that was in the work of MLK's compared to the other writers we have been working with. It is not, however, specifically similar to only one of them, but shares elements of all of the. As can be especially well seen in the first quote, MLK had adopted the push-and-pull mentality of Washington. He was willing to negotiate, but when that failed, he went further. While he believed in pacifism, he was certainly not shy about breaking the law for what he believed was right. He understood the anger of the negros, and like DuBois and Douglass, he was willing to acknowledge it and move forward with it. I think by incorporating elements from both sides, MLK was more easily liked and supported by those he was fighting for.
As for the final quote, I was amazed the MLK was showing disappointment towards the church. As a member of a long line of ministers, you would think the he would support the church no matter what it did. It really surprised me that he would revert to this.
One of the points made by Dubois in his book is that the church became the leadership institution -- especially in the south -- because there was nothing else. Ministers became powerful leaders; he would not have been surprised by King's authority. He might have been surprised by the ideals of non-violence practiced by Dr. King and his people. You may remember that some of these ideas came from Thoreau; some of them were Christian.
ReplyDeleteDubois points out that the slave holders were interested in spreading a kind of Christianity that might encourage long-suffering in its followers. I find that idea to be interesting as well. King took the best of all influences and got things done without resorting to violence.