“I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.”
and earlier in the letter, King wrote:
“For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. 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 have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; 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, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; 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. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so 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. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
written April 16, 1963
Jeff,
What is the theological framework for determining to disobey authority? I certainly understand and sympathize with the desire to rebel against unjust laws, especially when minorities are being oppressed or say, when babies are being aborted by the millions. The I’m curious about this in part because our church is currently studying I Peter and I don’t know if I can harmonize what MLK is saying with I Peter 2, in particular. I believe MLK was on the right side of history in many regards, especially when he taught his listeners to love their enemies. This was an incredibly powerful and courageous call. However, I read his letter here and wonder if he would have written this after studying and meditating on I Peter 2. Curious for your thoughts.
Derek
Derek,
Thank you for your continued interaction on this blog, I really am enjoying it.
I was not intending to advocate MLK’s position concerning the breaking of laws. I was even thinking of leaving the last few sentences of the the excerpt out. I was merely trying to help us see the world the way it was when in the days of King, so that we could thank God together for the changes He has wrought in this land, concerning this issue. At the same time, it is important to see King as He really is. We miss out on a lot of learning when we only lift up the clearly honorable attributes of our heros, making them to be someone who they were not.
While I agree with you on your assessment of 1 Peter 2 (see this earlier post on 1 Peter 2:17, http://2mites.com/2008/11/05/fear-god-honor-the-king/ ), and other similar passages, I am conflicted when I read this letter. I firmly believe, at this point, that to break laws in peaceful protest in such a scenario as this, is to fall short of what God requires of us. Yet, my heart aches, and I am tempted to ask myself, “At what point are we to say with Peter in Acts 5, “We are to obey God rather than men.”" Yet, I already hold a conviction on this, and I believe we are only to disobey the government when we are asked to violate a direct command of God, as is the case in Acts 5.
So I left the sentences in, and I sit in the struggle. I want to be assured of my conviction and search the scriptures well, and scenarios like this force me to do so.
Here is Martin Luther King. I’m so thankful that God used him to stem the tide of segregation. And here is where our mutual belief is put to the test, that it is sin to protest any laws by disobeying them – outside of a direct command from God. Are we o.k. with being that white Texas brother in paragraph one, saying, “Wait!” Do we have the Scriptures standing in our corner? I want to be assured, and it is always best to test your conviction in the slipperiest of scenarios.
challenged,
Jeff
Jeff,
There is much to consider here and I am very challenged as I study I Peter. One thing that I think can be said of MLK is that even when he did disobey, there was a sense in which he did respect and “honor the king”. This had to have been an incredibly delicate balancing act and is part of why we still study and discuss his actions and life. I am quite certain that MLK himself would admit that his own actions may not have always lined up with the ideals he believed in. I don’t know how committed MLK was to the gospel, though I don’t question his commitment to some of the implications of the Gospel. Is it fair to say that his legacy is a little more complex than we usually admit? I believe we can honor him at the same time that we also acknowledge this. It is also helpful to remember that Malcolm X and his many followers disdained MLK’s approach because he sought to redress grievances without malice and vengeance and he routinely reminded his listeners that love should guide our actions and the content of our character is of utmost importance.
This discussion also reminds me that Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed in pacifism until he witnessed the unmasked evil of Nazism. Perhaps MLK is correct when he says that at some point, we all reach a breaking point where the pursuit of justice leads us to disobey or even to resort to force, provided that innocent lives hang in the balance. Abraham recruited 318 men for military purposes when tyrants took advantage of women and children. When Phaoroh commanded the death of Jewish babies, the midwives lied to protect the children and their parents. In both cases, I believe God was honored. I realize other people come to different conclusions on these passages, but that is a discussion for another day.
Derek