Mosley, Lora: Diversity

In Alabama in the 1960s two groups consisting of similar people clashed. They each had different opinions about how to handle a common issue: segregation. One group, the Alabama Clergymen, wanted the demonstrations to stop. They urged the African-American citizens to wait for the government to take care of the problem of segregation.  In response to the Clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. thought the demonstrations were necessary to get the government’s attention.

In order to reflect about the letters, I had to answer a question.  Were the men who signed A Call for Unity White?  Upon my research, I found that to be true.  I believe that their race influenced their thoughts and actions.  They saw the government as a force that could solve any problem.  They praised the government for the work that had been done, although King could not see what work had been already done.  What the Clergymen didn’t understand was the oppression the African Americans were under.  They were hosed down, chased by dogs, beat by police, and thrown in jail.  It didn’t make sense to King for the Clergymen, who had never been under oppression, to ask the African-Americans to stop the demonstrations.  If the government allowed stores to put racial exclusion signs back on their windows, how could the government fix segregation all together?

            

I found it interesting that eight White preachers knew that segregation was wrong, but didn’t want to do anything to stop it.  Instead, they just asked a government that didn’t care to fix anything to address the problem. They thought that would do the trick.  It seemed to King as if the White preachers didn’t care, and that was the same impression I got.  All they wanted was to stop were the demonstrations that seemed too violent to them.

            

King called them out, though.  He pointed out that they, along with many other ministers, didn’t support his cause.  He expected preachers throughout the South to support him and his cause.  He said that a stumbling block in his cause was the White preachers.  He hoped the White preachers would understand the law gave equality to all people, and that God created all people the same.

            

King also pointed out that what he was doing wasn’t violent.  He told them about his steps to word conducting demonstrations, which he followed very well.  I don’t understand how the Clergymen could see the demonstrations as violent compared to what the police had done to the African Americans.

            

Clearly, the two groups had two different opinions about what was violent and what wasn’t.  They had different opinions on many things, but there was something they could agree on: segregation had to stop.  They just had different ways of solving the problem, one more productive than the other.  Today, the problem is fixed and we shouldn’t have to worry about segregation any longer.