Shakya, Subir: Diversity

The only way to get your message to the ruling and dominant class is through protest. The protest may happen in the street or in the court. The two letters: A Call for Unity and Letter from Birmingham Jail argue over these two places of protest and which one can be more productive. When it comes to the court as a place of nonviolent protest, I will agree with the Alabama clergymen that this is the right way. However, we know from history that the street way was the one that brought racial justice.
            
I am not criticizing Martin Luther King Jr.'s way of handling the crisis. Protests through the street never have made a good impression to the arrogant ruling majority. Going to the street is taken as a challenge to authority. That challenge is always dealt with the use of force. Just take as more recent examples the Occupy Wall Street movement, what happened in Oakland, and the use of pepper sprays by the police in Denver. The rich and powerful are not going to take this type of protest lightly. In more serious cases like in Syria, for example, the government is using tanks and other deadly weapons to quell the street protestors. I would really like to see conflicts such as these resolved in a courthouse rather than in the street battlegrounds.
          
The court has always stood as the institution of justice. It is through it that most of the cases of right and wrong are solved. If a court includes of a jury representative of the people, then justice should folow. Using the nonviolent legal approach makes sure innocent lives are not lost. It does not incite chaos and hence, does not contribute to political instability. Dr. King said that "white power structure left the black community with no choice." There were other choices, such as raising public awareness, doing a righteous thing to show Blacks were as good as Whites, and others which could have been adopted. Sure, it would have postponed the racial integration, perhaps for years, but still a desirable outcome would have been reached.
         
Even though court warfare was the appropriate choice, history shows us that the street campaign brought about integration. This act cost Blacks dearly. The desegregation of the University of Mississippi illustrates this point; three innocent people lost their lives at the beginning of the crisis there. Most of the Women's Suffrage Act was accomplished in the legislation and same could have been done for the civil rights movement. Using the street to achieve integration also increased hatred from the White community. Even though today there is racial integration, there is still racial warfare, so can we say the civil rights movement accomplished all of its aims?
          
Finally, the assassination of Dr. King Jr. added to the losses from the street protests. Sure, we have integration now but it is not complete. People still discriminate by skin color. Can we truly say all those lives lost were worth this faux integration?