My name is Martin Luther King Jr, I am a civil rights activist and am against segregation. During the Birmingham campaign, my role was president of the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Center), and was also known as the ‘face of the movement’. I strongly believe that I, and all African Americans, should be entitled to the same freedom and rights as the white people of the United States.
The first reason I am opposed to segregation is that I am African American and have personally experienced racism and segregation. When I was six years old, one of my white classmates announced that his parents would no longer allow him to play with me since he was now attending a segregated school. Segregation has been extremely detrimental to education. For example, 9-year-old Linda Brown was refused an education in a desegregated school in 1951 because of her African-American race. Before starting college, I spent the summer on a tobacco farm in Connecticut, where I encountered my first 'out of the norm' segregation standards. This experience stunned me because I was surprised at how the two different races of black and white people merged in comparison to what I was used to in the South. It was my usual, and seeing it be so different further fueled my rage against racial segregation as a whole. While still in Connecticut, I remember a part of the letter I had written to my parents saying, ”On our way here we saw some things that I had never anticipated to see. There was no discrimination after we crossed through Washington, and the white people here seemed kind. We can go anywhere and sit anywhere we want without being separated.' In the letter, I was saying how shocked I was at the difference in treatment of black people from the North compared to the South. African Americans and whites were able to attend the same church. I never even thought that a person of my race was able to eat out anywhere because this is what I was used to. The second reason I am against segregation is that it is against the Bible and my faith. I am a catholic baptist minister and believe in the subject of equality of all kinds. In my essay, while wrestling with the roles of religion in a modern segregated society named ‘science and religion’ I stated that, “Religion is the response to the human need for hope and certitude. One is an outreach for mastery, the other for perfection. Both are man-made and like man himself, are hedged about with limitations. Neither science nor religion, by itself, is sufficient for man.” My meaning behind this essay was that I believe that all people, no matter what race they are, deserve to be treated fairly as we are all the same by science which is closely related to my belief in Christian faith and guidance by the Bible. As Paul Tillich has said, sin is separation. As I addressed in my letter from Birmingham Jail, “Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?” I feel as if there is injustice in Birmingham, and I feel compelled to carry the ‘gospel of freedom’ beyond my hometown.
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An action I took during the Birmingham Campaign was my letter from Birmingham Jail. In April 1963, I was arrested for violating a state court order by leading a movement of black demonstrators without a permit, demanding a boycott of white-owned institutions and the acknowledgment and liberation of African Americans' rights. On April 16, 1963, I wrote this letter in response to white clergymen telling me that the timing of the demonstration was 'unwise and untimely.' The first reason I took this action was that I believe protests and civil disobedience are vital, as I also discussed in my letter. Protests can never be 'well timed,' especially for something as serious as Black Civil Rights. I stated that while it can be hard for whites to see, blacks cannot put up with this any longer and it is not untimely as we can not wait any longer. The second reason I took this action was because African Americans have been waiting for constitutional and God-given rights such as the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments for over 340 years. My response to criticism and my nonviolent methods were described in a letter I wrote saying, 'Human rights do not depend on the decision of a human agency'. We have gone through decades of suffering, and being constantly abused and treated like animals and it is time to put an end to this. We have been told to always wait, which usually means never. No change has been made by waiting and if we wanted fair treatment then we had to act now. The struggle against segregation cannot be confined to a courtroom, as it creates nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Since the Albany protest which began on November 17th, 1961 was a failure, I wasn’t going to give up and stop there. I had to keep going otherwise no change would ever be made. I also discussed how the campaign wouldn’t have had to happen if whites were willing to negotiate without action, however, they weren’t, meaning we as black people needed to take action for the opportunity of negotiation to arise. We haven’t made a single gain in the past without pressure, therefore this is the way to create that necessary pressure and tension.
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