Franklin, Trey: Diversity

Over the years, there has always been a diversity issue. The time when this issue was strongest was during Martin Luther King Jr.’s “nonviolent campaign.” During his time in Birmingham, Alabama, King was placed under arrest for his nonviolent civil protests. Multiple White clergymen from Birmingham, Alabama published in a local newspaper a letter titled, “A Call for Unity.” After reading this, King responded with his “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”  To reflect back on the issue of the diversity and racial tension of this time in American history is important in understanding the diversity of America today.

           

In “A Call for Unity,” eight clergymen detailed the need to end the “demonstrations,” which were led by Martin Luther King Jr.  It also entailed that “Negroes [should] engage in local negotiations and use the courts if rights are being denied” (Wikipedia). Noticing that the clergymen were attempting civility about the situation, I can tell that only after King had entered Birmingham did the clergymen want to do anything about the racial tension between Whites and Blacks. Although that could possibly be false, the only evidence that anyone was doing much of anything noticeable in Birmingham was the letters “A Call for Unity” and “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Within “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King opposes “A Call for Unity” by claiming that if the White community had done something about the issue before; the black community would not have resorted to “demonstrations.” To reflect upon these issues, King had responded to the looking away from ‘unity’ by marching into Birmingham and nonviolently campaigning demonstrations against the discrimination of the Black community.

             

King's nonviolent campaigns and marches showed America that the strong racial tension between Blacks and Whites was in favor of the discrimination of Black people. The Black communities of America, mostly in the South, were no longer going to take that discrimination. So, in an attempt to end or at least lessen the racial tension between Whites and Blacks, King campaigned around the South to show that the Black community was being discriminated against. His campaigns led to the lessening of the racial tension between the Black and White communities and reinforced the ‘unity’ of the two.