Phillips, Courtney: Diversity

After reading both "A Call for Unity" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the diversity issue of the 1960s has become more clear to me. Although the authors of both letters were against racism, the letters argue two completely different views.
   
"A Call for Unity" was a collaboration of eight caucasian clergymen. It stated that the "Negro" demonstrations led by the "outsiders" were acts of hatred and violence and were disrupting the peace of their town. It also stated that the issue of rights should be taken up with he courts in a calm and civilized manner. But if solving the problem of equal rights for Whites and African-Americans were as simple as going to court, the problem would have been already solved by the time this letter was written. Numerous civil rights cases had been heard by the 1960s and nothing had yet been done. The African-American community of Birmingham, as well as those in other Southern cities felt as if causing public disruptions was the only way they would be heard, and to an extent, they were right.
   

Martin Luther King Jr. responded to this letter with his own "Letter from Birmingham Jail". In his letter he argued that he was invited to Birmingham as the  president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to aid in the fight against injustice. He felt that by leading and participating in these demonstrations, he was helping African-Americans get one step closer to the earning the rights they deserved. King pointed out that a more civil means of negotiation had been attempted by asking local merchants to simply remove racist signs from their stores, which they did, but soon put them up again. After many failed attempts at peaceful compromise, direct action had to be taken, and so began the public demonstrations. Of course, the demonstrations were never meant to be violent. In fact, the African-American community held non-violence workshops to prepare the activists for what to expect. The hope was that these non-violent sit-ins and marches would force city officials to negotiate the demands of the African-American community. Another issue that King confronted was the use of power by the "white moderate" and how the law and order that the clergymen referred to was supposed to be used to prevent injustice. King makes some valid and irrefutable arguments in his letter.
   

These two letters, intended to lessen the tension between races, only seemed to make matters worse. Demonstrations continued and grew more violent. It would take more than letters to settle the dispute over racial injustice.