For more than 200 years, African Americans lived in silent fear. Viciously segregated from the White population, they were seen as “outsiders.” Uprisings to fight against this unjust separation were quickly put down and deemed as “unwise and untimely.” In the letter A Call for Unity, the clergymen tell the Black population that they need to stop protesting and, instead, negotiate. Even though they did what they were told, all of their efforts were in vain. “This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never’." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied,” he stated passionately in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
Martin Luther King, Jr. calmly retaliated, stating that he agreed with the clergymen that negotiation was needed, but the leaders of the White communities failed to recognize them and give them a fair chance. The only way to get through to the White community was to protest. I believe that King’s letter made a vital impact on the way that events played out, but it does not really affect the way I feel about the whole situation. My family does not come from a generation of slave owners and even though I feel for the people that suffered, I am neutral in the matter. I feel that matters of the present should be focused on more. I know that the past is important, but I think that we should live in the present.
Segregation is not as much of a problem anymore as it used to be. Black and White populations mingle and blend together to form one united nation. If Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black community had decided to accept that nothing could change and allowed themselves to be beaten down, then the world today would probably still be segregated and unjust. If they had given in, life as we know it would not be the same.
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