Speculation: “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.”
Reality: “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
Dr. King not only led a nation, he perfectly wrote the longest sentence (316 words). This excerpt is from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Just love this! Taking it to my actors and poets group (the Net), next week.
ReplyDeleteWatching Maya Angelou's Master Class on the OWN network), I finally realized how young Dr. King was when he died in '68. If he were alive today, him and Maya Angelou would be just about the same age. Thank you Dr. Linda! for sharing it.
Thank you for stopping by Ms. J. Continue to grow in grace and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteDr. Linda!