Why We Can't Wait

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Why We Can't Wait was firstly published on July 1st, 1964. The book was written by Martin Luther King Jr., with a foreword given by Jesse Jackson. The book is explaining how Dr. King's exploration of the Civil Rights movement in Alabama can be an example for other civil rights movements and urge more than ever on equality and freedom for everyone including Black people[1].

Plot

Why We Can't Wait Book Cover[2]

After "The Negro Revolution" in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, Dr. King emphasizes the urgency of the Civil Rights Movement for black Americans. He sees that for there centuries, there were not any significant changes in resolving racism and prejudice. He believes that the federal government had failed in handling those issues as losing to apply the Brown v. Board of Education. Even leaders like President John F. Kennedy was not satisfactory enough to determine civil rights. King realizes that the decolonization movement in Africa has emancipated the Africans. Yet, the black People have not achieved equality despite the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln. King's success in resolving segregation in Birmingham, Alabama can be an example of stopping bigotry across the country through nonviolent resistance and national exposure[3].

Black Empowerment

Dr. King aspired officials and black Americans to push the equality reform for black Americans as they had been rejected for more than three centuries. He fought racism with nonviolent demonstration, legal battle, and took a massive exposure so that the world would realize the urgency of abolishing the injustice against black Americans. Birmingham, Alabama were considered to be the most segregated city in American yearned to be the vital location to display the civil rights movement nonviolently. Dr. King and his colleagues plan strategies in ending the segregation within the city through peaceful marches, extensive training, freedom songs, and protested as a unity. Their efforts got national attention where it was amplified more with 1,000 people faced vicious opposers in the protest of Birmingham on May 2, 1963. The effort paid the price where eventually black people acquired the freedom in Birmingham where they have the equality as anybody else. Yet, King believed that this was not enough as rejection still occurred across the United States, and evoked people the fight still continued and he intended to bring the Civil Rights movement through nonviolent resistance on an international scale[4].

Controversy

King portrays how racism was like in Birmingham, Alabama. Black people experience a miserable and discriminated life in every part of their life. For instance, black shoppers are told to spend their hard work money on buying unnecessary things while the white shoppers could have luxury goods in a cheap amount. Black people were not allowed to sit-ins at the lunch counter in any part of the Birmingham store. Black people also had to use the facilities labeled "colored" while white people can use any facilities they want. The segregation was kept as Bull Connor, Birmingham's Commissioner of Public Safety was a racist official who wanted to keep the Jim Crow laws. King evaluated the progress of black civil rights and he said that there were not any significant improvements for three centuries, as the country did not seem to resolve the racism despite Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation a long time ago[5].

References

  1. Why We Can't Wait. Goodreads. Retrieved January 26 2021
  2. Why We Can't Wait Book Cover. Goodreads. Retrieved January 26 2021
  3. Why We Can't Wait eNotes. Retrieved January 26 2021
  4. TEACHERS' GUIDE: WHY WE CAN'T WAIT Beacon Press. Retrieved January 26 2021
  5. Why We Can't Wait Summary & Study Guide BookRags. Retrieved January 26 2021