Date Name Class Activity 11, The Civil Rights Movement, continued Document 4 You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't nego- tiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the words [sic]"Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." -Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963) 4a. What does King hope to accomplish by "direct action"? 4b. According to King, what would happen if he gave up direct action? Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston All rights reserved

Date Name Class Activity 11, The Civil Rights Movement, continued Document 4 You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't nego- tiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the words [sic]"Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." -Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963) 4a. What does King hope to accomplish by "direct action"? 4b. According to King, what would happen if he gave up direct action? Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston All rights reserved