Birmingham Jail Letter

The Negro has many pent-up resentments and LATENT frustrations.

Present but not visible

There can be no GAINSAYING that racial injustice engulfs this community.

To deny, dispute, or contradict

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our PENDING national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

While awaiting

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and SANCTIMONIOUS trivialities.

making a hypocritical show of religious devotion

Is not segregation an EXISTENTIAL expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?

pertaining to or characteristic of existentialism

While M. Boutwell is a much more gentle person that Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the STATUS QUO.

the existing state or condition

We are mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the MILLENIUM to Birmingham.

A period of general happiness

Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent GADFLIES that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

A person who persistently annoys others with criticism, ideas, or requests

There is nothing wrong with having an ORDINANCE which requires a permit for a parade.

A public regulation

The only answer that I can give to this QUERY is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act.

A question

Since we do diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather PARADOXICAL for us consciously to break laws.

A statement that seems self-contradictory but in reality expresses a possible truth

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their SCINTILLATING beauty.

Animated; vivacious

Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement [the Muslim movement] is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an INCORRIGIBLE devil.

Bad beyond correction

I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an INTEGRAL part of our struggle.

Belonging to something as a part of the whole

In the midst of BLATANT injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.

Brazenly obvious

Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a CLARION call for defiance and hatred

Clear and shrill

I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek SOLACE and security in black-nationalist ideologies—a development that would inevitable lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Comfort in sorrow, misfortune or trouble

In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the MORES of society.

Folkways embodying the fundamental moral views of a group

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need EMULATE neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.

Imitate with effort to equal or surpass

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too INEXTRICABLY bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?

Incapable of being undone

I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their SUBLIME courage, their willingness to suffer; and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation.

Inspiring awe or veneration

In deep disappointment I have wept over the LAXITY of the church.

Looseness

Throughout Alabama all sorts of DEVIOUS methods are usesd to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters

Not straightforward

Where were their voices when the lips of governor Barnett dripped with words of INTERPOSITION and nullification?

Placing between; cause to intervene

Consciously or unconsciously, he [the American Negro] has been caught up by the ZEITGEIST ... and is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.

The spirit of the time

I have heard many minister say: "Those are social issues, with which the GOSPEL has no concern

The story of Christ's life and teachings

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white Citizen's Counciler [sic] or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice...who PATERNALISTICALLY believes he can set the

The system of managing something in the manner of a father dealing benevolently with his child

Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement [the Muslim movement] is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely REPUDIATED Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible devil.

To reject as having no authority

Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" [I-you] relationship and ends up RELEGATING persons to the status of things.

To send to an inferior position

How can you ADVOCATE breaking some laws and obeying others?

To support or urge by argument