Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King Jr.
	List Price:   $9.99 Unit Price:   $7.99 You Save:   $2.00 (20%) ISBN-10:   0451527534 ISBN-13:   9780451527530 Publisher:   Penguin Group (USA) Inc; Signet Classics Series:   Classics Ser. Category:   Non-Fiction Pub. Date:   January 2000 Pages:   176 Format:   B-Premium Pbk Ages:   18 to Grades:   12 to
Description/Notes
In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. launched the Civil Rights movement and demonstrated to the world the power of nonviolent direct action. Why We Can't Wait recounts not only the Birmingham campaign, but also examines the history of the civil rights struggle and the tasks that future generations must accomplish to bring about full equality for African Americans. Dr. King's eloquent analysis of these events propelled the Civil Rights movement from lunch counter sit-ins and prayer marches to the forefront of the American consciousness. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 'Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, 'Wait.' But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim...when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society...when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky...when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you...when your wife and mother are never given the respected title 'Mrs.' ...when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of 'nobodiness'...then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.' This paperback reissue of a classic not only examines King's Birmingham campaign for civil rights, but the history of the struggle and the tasks that await future generations fighting for equality. New Afterword by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Reissue. Dr. King's remarkable account of the struggle for civil rights in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, tracing the history of the movement back to its beginnings three centuries ago and looking to the future.