Birmingham Campaign 1963 Essay

Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates.

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.

Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.

Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea.

Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community.

Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts.

If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such 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 good will 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.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community.

In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants—for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs.