It's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Author: Jude S. Ngu'Ewodo
Author: Jude S. Ngu'Ewodo YESTERDAY WAS DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY. HERE IS ONE OF HIS PROFOUND REFLECTIONS, WHICH I HOPE MANY TOOK TIME TO REVISIT, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO CHAMPION "CIVILITY NO MATTER WHAT": Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often critiqued the role of white moderates and liberals in the struggle for civil rights, particularly in his seminal work, "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963). Here is the relevant quote: "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 feels that he ...