Who does MLK draw inspiration from once he has been called an extremist?
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Who does MLK draw inspiration from once he has been called an extremist?
Transcribed Image Text:Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one
determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man
made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.
An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral
law... Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law
that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation
statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and
damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense o
superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority...
Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the
Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to
disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in
Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom
fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and
comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany... First, I must confess that
over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with
the white moderate. 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 or the Ku
Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to
"order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is
the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the
presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in
the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of
direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the
timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical
concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait
for a "more convenient season."...
... though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as
an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I
gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was
not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless then
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." ... And
Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and
half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be
self evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the
question is not whether we wilIl be extremists, but what kind of
extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for
love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or
for the extension of justice? ... Perhaps the South, the nation
and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with
the hope that the white religious leadership of this community
would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral
concern, would serve as the channel through which our just
grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that
each of you would understand. But again I have been
disappointed.
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