The purpose of "A Call For Unity" was to explain to the Black population that Whites (who supposedly agreed with their idea that segregation was wrong) believed that "outsiders" should not be the leaders of public protest, but that individuals needed to react locally. The writers felt that the demonstrations were unwise, and that though the people's plight was understandable, it was necessary for the process to slow down and be redirected.
In Martin Luther King's "Letters from Birmingham Jail," he argued that though the "outsider" comment was directed at him, being a member of our country made him local anywhere he deemed fit to be on the continent. "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever," King reminded. He also held that while there was a need to go to authority when morals were challenged, other actions must be taken when that authority has been corrupted. To the idea that the process of desegregation needed to be tamed, Dr. King explained that there was no way that could possibly happen without negative consequences.
While in some places, racism can still be an issue, I'm glad that for the most part it has disappeared. If I'd been alive during segregation, it would've seemed wrong to me. I would have hated it, and probably spoken against it. To see in history books and documentaries the struggles that Black people went through, it almost makes me despise Whites (forgetting that I am one.) To see the first letter, and then Dr. King's reply, I have solace in the fact that Dr. King stood up for his race, and even lost his life in pursuit of that one thing that they so desperately wished for.
Freedom is a concept that we as human beings often take for granted, because we can never appreciate it the way our ancestors did. It is through struggle that freedom is achieved.
In Martin Luther King's "Letters from Birmingham Jail," he argued that though the "outsider" comment was directed at him, being a member of our country made him local anywhere he deemed fit to be on the continent. "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever," King reminded. He also held that while there was a need to go to authority when morals were challenged, other actions must be taken when that authority has been corrupted. To the idea that the process of desegregation needed to be tamed, Dr. King explained that there was no way that could possibly happen without negative consequences.
While in some places, racism can still be an issue, I'm glad that for the most part it has disappeared. If I'd been alive during segregation, it would've seemed wrong to me. I would have hated it, and probably spoken against it. To see in history books and documentaries the struggles that Black people went through, it almost makes me despise Whites (forgetting that I am one.) To see the first letter, and then Dr. King's reply, I have solace in the fact that Dr. King stood up for his race, and even lost his life in pursuit of that one thing that they so desperately wished for.
Freedom is a concept that we as human beings often take for granted, because we can never appreciate it the way our ancestors did. It is through struggle that freedom is achieved.
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