"Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue..."

Hi all,

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend, I hope that each of you are finding a way to celebrate his life and legacy, amidst a chaotic time in our history where white supremacists continue to threaten our nation’s capital.

Before the history books were written, Dr. King was thought of as radical and dangerous, he was under surveillance by the FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover called him the most notorious liar in the country in 1964 – almost a year after his “I Have a Dream” speech. Today, we remember him as a Baptist minister, an activist, and the spokesperson for the civil rights movement through the 1950s and 60s. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he advocated for civil disobedience and was inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. His children have carried his history on into the fight for racial justice that exists today, shining a light on the inequalities before us, and urging us all to do better. To be better.

Thousands of articles have been written today, and every year on this day, to remember Dr. King. Hundreds of streets have been named in his honor, and books written in his name. Memorials, museums, and monuments have told his story, and my words won’t do him justice today. So instead, I leave you with his words, taken from “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, written in response to a group of clergymen who had urged him not to protest. In reading them I found some solace for our current moment, and some hope for tomorrow.

I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. 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 to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

If you haven’t, or even if you have, read the full text here: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html. Let us all try and live in dialogue as our tribute to Dr. King.

-Reshma