I w my from both sides of the aisle f senator again us somethingew. Nn hearshese and bigger na by saying this. The letterrom j wr clergy as senator was speaking about the importance os liberties, the o thing he said at the end was, we s all the the economic] racial issues, and i thought its and appropriate that following that its important and e that following that speech you have the reading of the letter from the birmingham jailo leaders, the religious leadezb to become struggle. Change comes to america. Thank you leading this mr. Kennedy madamresident . The presiding offir the senato from louisiana. Mr. Nnedy madam president , with me today is one of my colleagues from my office, mr. Blaine clus. Madam president , the dr. King. Letter from a birmingham jail. E city jail, i came across youram recent statement calling my unw . Untimely. I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If i sought to answer all of th, my secretaries would have little time other than such correspondence in the course of a day. And i would have no time for but since i feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and tht your criticisms are sincerely set forth, i want to t answer your statement in what i reasonable ter. I think i shouldndicate why iiny have been influenced by the viec coming in. I have the honor oleadership co, 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 rights. Frequently we sharstaff,and finl resources with our affiliates. Several months ago, the asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolenrenece the hour came, we lived up to our promise. So i, along with ses of my staff, am here because i was invited here. Because i have orgazational ties here. Bu more basically, i am in birmingham becau injustice is here. Eighth century b. C. Left their villages and carried their thu saith 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 co greco roman world, so am i compelled to c ry the gospel of freedobeyond my own me respd to the macedonian call for aid. Moreover, i am cognizane interrelatedness of all un and not be crnut what happens in birmim. Injustice anywhe is a threat to justice everywher we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all di ve live with the narrow, provincial outside agitator ide yone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. You deplore thdemonstrations taking place in birmingham. Similar concern for them sorry,l conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of soci7es noe with underlying causes. Ions aree in birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the citys white ft the africaamerican community with no alternative in a nonviolent campaign,four b co determine whether injustes exist; negotiation; selfpurification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps birngham. There can be no gainsaying the fact thaci engulfs this community. Thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Itugly recorofs have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the bombings of afnhomes and churchm than in any other city . These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, african americ leaders sought to negotiatey fa. Reage in good faithistently negotiatn. Then, last september, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of birngity. He course of the we made by the merchants for example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for human the africanamerican homes andan the churches tn any other city in the these are the hard and brutal facts of the case on the basis of these conditions africanamerican leaders city fd faith negotiations. But then last september came the opportunity with the Economic Community and in the course of the negotiations certain promises were made by the merchants anor example to remove the stores humiliatinra signs. On the basis the leaders of the alabamchristian for rights agreed to a moratorium. And as the weeks and months went by we realizef were promise. F a broken so and so many past and that the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. With no alternative to prepare for direct and to present the very bodies as a means to put our case before the conscience a national community. And with self. Keeshan. And we repeatedly ask yourselves areou able to accept the blo withoutretaliati . Are you able to endure the ordeal . We decided to schedule our direct Action Program that except christmas this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing the byproduct d time to bring pressure to bear of the needed change. Then it occurr birminghams Mayoral Election was coming up and we decided postpone action until after election day. Ion until after with t commissioner public safetyough votes to be in the world on the so te used to cloud the issues. And this end we enter a postponement. After having aided inre this communi y community, we felt our direct action could be delayed no jail april 16, 1963. I yield the floor. Continuing the reading from the birmingham jail you may well ask what direct action is it negotiation and a better path you are right to call for negotiation and indeed this is ve purpose of direct and then to foster such attention to negotiate to confront that issue. And then to no longer be ignored as part of the non resistor. And there is a type of constructive nonviolen necessarr growth progress secretaries felt it was necessary so that individuals could rise from the bondage and truth to the unfettered rome of the created analysis and objected appraisal. Lethe ki rise from tk depths of prejudice and racism to the Majestic Heights of understanding and brother. The purpose of the direct Action Program is to create a situation so crisis packed it will inevitably openha the door to negotiation. Therore w< concur when you call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved bogged down to live in a monologue rather than a dialogue. One of the basic points in the statemt is the action that we have taken in birmingham is untimely. Some ask why dont you give the new City Administration time to . The New BirminghamAdministration Must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one. We are sadly mistaken if w feel the election of the mayor will bring the millennium toim birmingham while he is a much more gentle person than mr. Connor they are both segregationists dedicated to the maintenance of the status quo. I have hopec. He will be reasonable enough to see the utility of massive resistance to desegregation but he will not see this without pressure without those proteins of civil rights. We have not made a single gain in civil rights without nonviolent pressure it is a face group sell them give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unju posture, but grouen immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given and must be demanded by the oppressed. Ctionpaign that was welltimed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. Four years i have heard the word weight it readings in the year of every negro this weight has almost always meant never. We must come to see with one of our distinguished jurists that justice too long delayed is justice denied. Ited for moren 340 years for our constitutional and godgiven rights the nations of asia and africa are moving with the jet like speed to gain political independence. But we still creep at a horse and buggy pace to gain a cup of coffee perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the sticking darts of segregation to sayn weight. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch mothers and fathers that will to drown your sisters andoh brothers and seen hate filled policeman curse and kick and kill your black br sisters, when you see the vast majority ofour 20 million negro brothers smothering i aaffluent society,u take a crosscountry drive to find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motelccepe humiliated day in and day out by signs reading colored when your first name is an expletive your middle name isr d your last name is john and your wife and mother are never ugiven the or title when you a haunted by night by the fact you are negro living constantly yet tiptoe stancewhat to expect next and ae plagued with inner fears and ou are forever fighting with the sense of nobody then you understand why we find difficult to floor. The senator from oklahoma. There comes time in a cup of endurance runs over then are no longer willing to be plunged into the aby o de understand our legitimate and unavoidable. You express a great deal of anxiety to break lawsv. Certainly th is a legitimate concern since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court decision of 1954 to outlaw segregation in Public Schools at first glance it may seem paradoxical to consciously break laws. One can ask how do you advocate breaking some and obeying others . The answer lies in the fact there are two types of law lawsjust andor unjust. I will be the first to advocate obeying just laws one has not only illegal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws and conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Unjust law is no law at all. What is the difference between the two how does one determine if a lot is just orga unjust . A just law squares with the moral law or the law with god ju to put it into the terms of st. Thomas aquinas unjust is human law not rooted in eternal law or natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All sehegation statutes are unju b soul and damages the personality gives us aggregator a false sense of superiority and a false sense of u inferiority segregation substitutes the eye it relationship are i and thou relegating persons to the status of things. Grtically and economically and sociologicallylo unsound it is morally wrong and sinful to say that sin is separation segrl separation the awfulestrangemeno obey the 1954 decision it is morally right naked urge them to disobey segregation ordinances unjust law is up our majority does not make on itself this is difference made legal by the same token a majority compels a minority to follow to follow itself to be made legal let me give anotherlanation a lot is unjust that as a result to be denied the righto vote had no part in enacting or devising the laws of can say the legislature of alabama set up those state segregation laws was democratically elected all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent negroes from becoming registered voters and some counties even though they constitute a majority of the population not a single negro is registered can any law acumstances be considered democratically structured . R sometimes just on the face unjust in its application and for instance arrested to parade without a permit there is nothing wrong to have an ordinance that has a permit but such an ordinance becomes in just one used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of assembly in protest. G to tpoint out in no sense do i advoca evading or defining the law. That with the two anarchy. One who breaks the unjust law must do so openly, lovingly and with a willingness to accept the penalty i submit an individual who breaksev the law , that conscience tells him is unjust to willingly accept imprisonment to arouse the community over injustices in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. Of course is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience it was the law that a higher moral law was at stake it was picrbly by the eary christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to the roman empire unjust laws. Academic freedom is a reality today because socrates practiced civil disobedience in her own nation the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience. We should never forget everything adolf hitler did in germany was legal and everything the hungarian Freedom Fighters did was illegal. Illegal to aid and comfort aid you in hitlers germany even so im sure had i lived euld aid comfort my jewish brothers. Today living in a communist country certain principles dear to the Christian Faith are suppressed come out openly advocate disobey their anti religious i must make to on this confessions to you. First i must confess to over the past two years i have been gravely disappointed with the moderate. I have almost reachedhe regrettable conclusion that the negroes great stumbling block in his drive towards freedom is not the white citizens counselor for the kkk but the white moderate was more devoted to order the injustice who prefers a negative piece but this is not the creators 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 never cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light. In justice must be exposed. With all the tension t its exposure creates to the life of human conscience in the air of national opiniobefore it can be cured. I yield. Letters from birmingham jail doctor Martin Luther king jr. In your statement you assert our actions although peaceful must be condemned because they precipitate violence. Is this a logical assertion condemning a bobbed man because of the possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery . Like condemning socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth precipitated the act by the misguided populist they make him drink hemlock like condemning jesus because of his unique god consciousness never ccing devotionnevoti to precipitate the crucifixion we come to see the federal courts have consistently affirmed it is wrong to urge an individual to cease efforts to gain basic constitutional strength because the request may precipitate Violence Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber th the late moderate was those in relation to the struggle for freedom i just received ari letter that says all christians know colored people of equal rights eventually it is possible you are too great of a hurry taking christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has wthh. Such an attitude stems from a tragic mix conception of time what the strangely irrational notion there is something in the flow of timell i to inevitably cure all ills. Time itself is neutral and can be used destructively or nstructively. More and more i feel they are much more effectively than the people of goodwill and have to repent in this generation not merely for theul words and actions but for the appalling silence of the goodop. Human progress never roles then on wheels of inevitability but it comes from the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with god and without the hard work time itself is an ally of the forces of social stagnation looking at the knowledge its always right to democracy and transform the national elegy into a sovereign brotherhood now is the time to lift national st to the solid rock of human dignity. You can speak of activity as extreme and rather disappointed the fellow clergymen of those nonviolent efforts of those is the extremist and began thinking of the fact to stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro Community madup been part of negroes over years of oppression to be so drained of selfrespect that th segregation ic 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. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammads muslim movement. Nourished by the negros frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made uof faith in america, who have absolutely repudiated christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible devil. 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 me 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 rabblerousers and outside agitators those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonvlent efforts, millions frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black naa development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the american negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright 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 recogs 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. Prayer pilgrimages to th