This year’s theme statement: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
In April 1963, Dr. King responded to an invitation from
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in
Birmingham to plan a program of “nonviolent direct
action” in protest of what he deemed as “probably
the most thoroughly segregated city in the United
States.” As a result of his participation in the protests,
he was arrested by the infamous Bull Connor,
the Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, for
parading without a permit.
While in jail, Dr. King received a letter “A Call For Unity” signed by eight white Birmingham clergy accusing him of participating as “an outsider” in a situation in which they felt he had no knowledge or experience, promoting protests over negotiations, timing the protests at a time which was politically and economically unfavorable, and breaking the city’s anti-protest ordinance. Dr. King’s response to his fellow clergy “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” and...
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
In response to the criticism of abandoning negotiations in favor of protest, Dr. King reminded the clergymen that entreaties of the Black community were rejected by the leadership of the city and merchants to integrate voluntarily. This lack of negotiation on their parts left no alternatives except to “present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community”. Dr. King justified “non-violent direct action” over continued, unsuccessful negotiation because direct action creates a crisis and foster tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront and inevitably open the door to negotiation. As far as timing the event during the change of the city’s administration and not waiting for the new administration to enact change, King responded that the new administration was equally dedicated to maintaining inequality. The Easter season was chosen for the protest in order to push merchants to make concessions to the protesters.
Dr. King distinguished between “just” and “unjust” laws to his accusers. The difference, he argued, is that just laws serve to unite people under the universal rule of law while unjust laws are used to enforce separation between groups, one enforcing the obedience of another. He adds that “an individual who breaks a law conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustices, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
The 2008 MLK Planning Committee chose “Injustice Anywhere is A Threat to Justice Everywhere” for this year’s theme because King’s response from a Birmingham jail in 1963 regarding the pervasiveness of the ugly practice of injustice is still relevant today. We witness the devastating consequences of local, national, and international injustice practiced through health, education, race, economics, politics, gender and religion. Injustice in every form burns and destroys the hopes and dreams of its victims. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the danger of ignoring injustice on any scale, in any location, at any time, and for any reason. He believed that whenever one person takes a stand for injustice anywhere, it gives hope and courage for victims of injustice everywhere.
Are we, like King, willing to break unjust laws openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept and submit to the penalty? Can we use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right? Do we have the strength, determination and persistence to root out injustice? Dr. King was willing to cross boundaries and give of his personal comfort to fight injustice. We must have the same conviction or we will all become victims of injustice or victims of apathy.
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