Why We Can't Wait

Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

“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 see the vast majority of twenty million 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 six-year-old daughter why she can’t 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…when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you…when…your wife and mother are never given the respected title ‘Mrs.’…when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. 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.”

Why We Can’t Wait

Martin Luther King’s Classic Exploration of the events and forces behind the Civil Rights Movement

In this account of the struggle for civil rights in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, and assessment of the work ahead to bring about full equality for African Americans, Dr. King offers an analysis of the events that propelled the Civil Rights movement to the forefront of American consciousness. Why We Can't Wait is an enduring testament to the wise and courageous vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. The author of several books, including Stride Toward Freedom (Beacon / 0069-4 / $14.00 pb), Where Do We Go from Here (Beacon / 0067-0 / $14.00 pb), and The Trumpet of Conscience (Beacon / 0071-7 / $22.00 hc), King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. 
 
Dorothy Cotton is the former education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and she worked closely with Dr. King on teaching nonviolence and citizenship education.