Vaughn, Tia: Diversity

In the letter “A Call for Unity” the clergymen of Birmingham, Alabama criticized Martin Luther King Jr’s plan to act on his words through demonstrations.  The clergymen agreed that the treatment of Blacks was unjust and in need of change.  However, they believed that these “demonstrations are unwise and untimely” and they felt that diplomacy was the best way to resolve these disagreements over human rights. The clergymen pleaded for law enforcement to be present during these demonstrations but to remain calm.  They further urged the Black community to withdraw support for these demonstrations and instead to work toward a better Birmingham.  They finally advised King to take this cause to the courts and not the streets.   King’s response to the clergymen’s letter was his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” which he used to give reason for why he was going through with his organized demonstrations.   He told the clergymen, in a respectful way, that the demonstrations had been already postponed many times because of different reasons and that he finally decided to go through with the demonstrations after Election Day.   He also wrote that he could no longer wait due to the fact that he was tired of seeing his people mistreated and disrespected by others. He followed up this reasoning by writing that it was hard for a father to look in his daughter’s tear-stained eyes and tell her she won’t be able to play at the new amusement park because it is “closed to colored people” or to take a cross-country trip with the family and have to sleep in the car because the motels won’t accept them.   He also said that it was tiring to be “humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘White’ and ‘Colored’.”  All of these reasons made him believe that it was the right time for these demonstrations.  Even though he disagreed with the clergymen about the timing of these demonstrations he agreed that nonviolence was how this issue should be resolved.