Hey, is this a book about Martin Luther King Jr?

Which one did I?

Oh, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Why We Can't Wait.

This is a great book.It's not just the man about Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, but it's actually by Doctor Martin Luther King Junior.

Do you remember us talking about this at home?

Yes.

What do you remember?

Well, his protest and his I have a dream speech and how he's a leader.

That is true.

That's great.

But it's more than just about the protest.

It's more than just about the speech.

It's more about to what it was that he was able to do for people.

So he fought with knowledge.

He did fight with knowledge.

You know, the great thing about Doctor.

King was that he realized he couldn't just fight people with physical violence.

And it's a book that we all should be looking at.

It's a book we all should know the message behind.

And We're going to start with you.

(Gospel Music) Oh, freedom.

Oh, freedom.

Oh, freedom over me.

And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free.

Now the centennial celebrations that were planned throughout nineteen sixty three were to commemorate one hundred years since the Emancipation Proclamation.

But after one hundred years, writes doctor King, the Negro is still not free.

The Negro Revolution, By 1963 is not just the title of the opening chapter of this extraordinary book, but it's also the defining premise of doctor King's full throated battle against segregationist policies and practices that were ubiquitous across the entire nation at that time.

Emancipation was a proclamation, but not a fact.

He described the political and economic climate and presented the promises made by both political parties in the nineteen sixty election in which black voters helped JFK narrowly defeat Nixon specifically because of the three principal demands of the Negro revolution, end the segregation in schools, end discrimination in housing, end discrimination in banking.

This the the economic deprivation, the education, the the the housing, all of these these issues are just holding strong.

And it's because the message isn't clear.

There's this overarching thing that we're just calling racism, that we're just calling police violence and things like this, but we have to unravel this thing.

Like, for instance, George Floyd.

When you unravel that situation that we all saw as police brutality, you find those brief points that you're mentioning.

And so we have to look at that.

We have to be clear about those things because those are the types of things that are getting us in a lot of situations we're in today.

About George Floyd and how he passed, they said children should not be watching this.

I think children should definitely be watching this.

We're still fighting against the same systemic problems Dr. King was in his lifetime, but we have lost his message.

This is the reason we must all read his book, "Why We Can't Wait."

Dr King talked about the inclusion of music and the arts.

In fact, the freedom songs that MLK used was another tool that he described as the soul of the movement.

These were adaptations of songs that were sung by enslaved people.

How important is that that we include those types of freedom songs in this event and what we're doing today?

I think music and entertainment has the ability to reach people in more personal ways.

And I think for people involved in the movements, it, you know, can become kind of a mantra, something to help you keep going when when things are really difficult.

This chapter to me was about the revolution of the summer of nineteen sixty three and with dealing of the social conditions and the psychological conditions that black people have had to experience for over 400 years Ending segregation in education had not arrived even nine years after Brown v Board of Education.

And here they were on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation talking about freedom.

It was a joke.

Right.And I may add, both parties have made a lot of promises and written out documents about how they were gonna do all the civil rights work, and, basically, there's disappointment in both parties.

I think one of the things that struck me the most was the similarities between then and now.

They had the anniversary of emancipation, and we kind of have a false sense of equality security from having a black president and, like, you know, everyone kind of using that as a facade that we're post racial.

We don't benefit from pretending that racism doesn't exist and hate doesn't exist.

We we don't benefit from not talking about it.

The fact that these things are being surfaced means we can solve them.

Reading the book, there were a couple of parallels where, you know, Dr King quotes people who say, oh, no.

I talked to such and such black person, and they said they're they said they're cool and they're you know, that everything's fine.

(Bull Conner) "You've got to keep the white and the black separate."

"That's their law enforcement agency."

"That's what you've got them hired for."

And there were some echoes between that and some of the stuff we heard of people who just feel like that can't happen here, but it's happening.

(Donald Trump)"And I'm starting to wonder myself whether or not he was born in this country."

"Knock the crap out of him, would you?

Seriously."

Gotta kind of get people a little uncomfortable and think about it.

And and it struck me in the book that misinformation, which we think is like a new thing on the Internet or something, misinformation has been there all along.

They had to fight it in nineteen sixty three, and we have to fight it now.

The movement in nineteen sixty three was a two pronged approach.

One was legal, and one was protest, nonviolent action, and they had to work together.

Neither one alone could get the job done.

The Project Confrontation is not just to shake up the status quo, but it's to bring a solution to the table.

Here's a policy change.

Here's a book that can be incorporated into the education system.

I believe that this chapter holds significance because it outlines the importance of being more organized.

Since marginalized peoples are always seen as savages or violent, when it is that we do action through non violence, our voices are heard as well as the silence of the compliant.

So Dr. King is setting up a showdown in Birmingham.

You've got all of these pastors.

You've got the Christian clergy that are arranging a very calculated, strategic demonstration that's gonna last multiple days.

What stood out for me is that they had to make a leap of faith Not even having A program that said we'll bail everybody out right now.

They didn't even know how long they would end up in jail.

To make an open ended commitment to that was devastating.

Hearing Dr King, like, really elaborate on the intensive training that they did to be able to be on the front lines and and commit to nonviolence.

The so the strength of character that it takes versus, like, the stereotypical bruteness of, like, you know, being violent and using weapons and dogs and everything they used.

The contrasting strength of the nonviolence, which I think is often characterized as almost inaction, but it's, you know, quite the opposite of that.

To go in front of people with guns and knives and dogs and not have one weapon on them, you might have created the most powerful person in the world.

(Gospel Music) One of the things I wanna make sure you do know, and the importance of knowing, is just why it's so important and why it's so important for your generation and for you people your age, because you're going to be the ones that carry on the work.

In fact, in this book, you'll find them talk about something called the Children's March.

And that is all about kids your age coming together and making a difference.

Going to jail, kids as young as 4 years old went to jail so that they can make a difference and make things right for people like you now.

That's the importance of this book, for you to know that everything that looks so hard, so difficult, that it's something that you don't feel like you can get over, you can.

Do you believe that?

Yeah.

Are you up for it?

Yeah.

Can you do it?

Yeah.

I believe you.I believe you.

You remember those things that we talked about then, and you know the things that are important for us.

That's why we need to make sure we continue on.

-So that's why we can't wait.

-That's why we can't wait, son.

Chapter 5, we find ourselves with Dr. King in the Birmingham jail, where he's just gotten the news that the local clergymen have very publicly denounced what he's doing in Birmingham, saying that the fight for integration should be in the courts, not in the streets, And in a way that only Doctor.

King can, he methodically and eloquently completely dismantles their argument point by point.

Just as important as it was then, we and it's just as relevant today, we learn exactly why we can't wait, why the time is now.

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.

Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages personality.

It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.

To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.

In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers.

First, I must confess that over the past few years, I've 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 citizens counselor or the Ku Klux Klan.

But the white moderate.

But the white moderate.

But the white moderate.

Who is more devoted to order than to justice than to justice.

Who is more devoted to order than to justice?

I think right now, we're at a we're at a a crossroads where it feels like, are you gonna step up for us or are you going to be these, as King said, these lukewarm acceptors?

You Know, King's letter was his response to that in a large sense.

Being a lifelong Southern Oregon person, I mean, being born and grown up here, there's a culture of like people kind of keeping to their own and not getting in other people's business.

The culture of that is starting to change.

You know, some white body people are really they're feeling the outrage.

They're feeling the outcry, and they're stepping up to be vocal and loud about it too.

They realize that this is our community, all of us collectively.

And what's good for, black and indigenous and other people of color is good for them too.

Chapter 6 is you know, so much happens in here.

It's sort of the pivotal moment, wouldn't you say?

In chapter six, black and white together, this is where the principle that the army could consist of everyone came into reality.

Even children too young to march went to the library, which they couldn't do before and just read.

And then this became this sea of people in the streets, so many that the business leaders couldn't go to lunch.

And finally, a new reality broke through.

Yeah.

I would absolutely agree.

This is a pivotal moment in this movement.

And one good thing that came out of chapter six that resonated with me was that looking to the youth, he knew that other movements that had happened around America was sparked by the youth.

And a lot of times we talk about the youth being the leaders of tomorrow, and, a lot of times they're they're they're the leaders of today.

And the parallel that I took from that is when I look at what happened in the past summer, a lot of those protests was led by youth.

And I thought that was very prevalent in what we saw this past summer and then what he saw in the movement in Birmingham.

But one other thing I I noticed is that he was very, very detailed in terms of wanted, what he wanted to realize from this march.

And there was a timetable that was part of that committee too.

Right?

That like like, it wasn't like someday we will overcome.

It was like we will set a schedule and things will happen.

One of the things that was also crucial in that timetable was getting the moderate bystanders within the black community to, like, all realize, yes, the time is now and that things have to happen now and kind of changing the hearts and mind of everyone to really step up and decide that they couldn't wait any longer.

Leave it to white people to educate me on racism.

The same dudes who lack to display the true vision.

I've said it many times before, but people here don't listen.

They get under your skin and then tell you to stop tripping.

If all lives matter, why my brother's getting killed while trying to live life as a man in the field.

But I hope you stand there and film it like everyone else in the damn crowd.

Talk about preaching social justice online, but we'll never speak it out loud.

Remember to wait, When is your attitude gonna stop it?

I don't know when people tell me I'm not black just because I'm adopted.

I don't know when schools don't have to hire POCs just to teach kids about race.

I don't know when you stop plugging Donald Trump in my face.

They wanna be just like us.

They wanna walk like us, talk like us, and even bite like us.

But there's one thing that they'll never do, and that's fight like us.

Use a halo and a shield to take a saint like us.

You say we shouldn't protest, then you protest.

You say we shouldn't rally, then you rally.

Gladly, do I like pointing out the contradictions.

That Proud Boy leader, he quit because this is not what he envisioned.

Either listen to this, Jane Elliott, or stop crowding by my door.

Me, Kokai, Keziah, and Ming Pah, fist up in the air, fighting for justice for all of y'all.

Black Lives Matter.

The opening of chapter seven sets the tone for the summer of our discontent.

In this chapter, Dr.King outlined the blueprint of nonviolent protest.

He describes how the movement turned the helplessness of being victimized to a confidence that they could be heard and free themselves.

The similarities between what we read about in chapter seven and what we've seen in 2020, it's as if 57 years has not passed.

That's why everyone in the Rogue Valley needs to read this book.

That will give us a common ground of knowledge and that common ground of understanding gives us a pathway to productive dialogue.

One thing that describes Martin Luther King Junior to me is love.

Martin Luther King Junior means to me is love, respect, peace.

Martin Luther King is super brave for all that he has done for us.

This last chapter was really something to summarize.

Essentially, Dr. King explains the many reasons why we can't wait.

He reflects on the effectiveness of his organizing in Birmingham.

He also, in the chapter, predicts the strong political power of the black voting block in American politics.

You know, fighting for the right to vote is in my bones.

But what is different for me is that instead of fighting to expand the right as I did as a college student, as a young person, I'm fighting to defend that right.

The title of governor isn't nearly as important as our shared title, voters.

And that is why we fight on.

Yeah.

He he actually speaks about, you know, things like the GI bill.

Right?

The Homestead Act.

All of these things that we have been able to provide those that, you know, serve this country.

Looking at some of those could be beneficial specific to black people, you know, because this is a generational thing that needs to continue and be sustained.

It comes down to education.

It comes down to housing.

It comes down to transportation.

It comes down to health care.

At the end of the day, we know that there are structural elements to ownership of the American dream of prosperity.

We also know that urban planning has forced us into squalor.

The question is, are you going to provide the kind of remedies necessary for us to not only move out of that, untenable condition, but contribute to the nation's wealth in a planned strategy.

The will to preserve the status quo maintains a rock like hardness underneath the cosmetic surface, Dr. King says.

Today, I think in our society, there's that expectation that we're somehow supposed to compromise.

Doctor.

King's talking about shaping a world that will not permit us the luxury of gradualism and procrastination, that that slows the progress not only of the Negro, he says, but of the nation as a whole.

(Crowd Chanting) George Floyd I can't breathe He carries this theme of revolution, and he capitalizes the R. And he continues to talk about nonviolent direct action as an army of volunteers, and he uses the motif of revolution because it is a revolution, and and it is a revolution against war that has been waged against us.

How many summers like this one do you imagine that we can expect?

The mood of the Negro community now is one of urgency, one of saying that we aren't gonna wait, that we've gotta have our freedom.

We've waited too long.

Every summer, we are gonna have this kind of vigorous protest.

My hope is that it will be nonviolent.

I would hope that we can avoid riots, but that we will be as militant and as determined next summer.

Dr King ends chapter in the book as a whole with making his case for nonviolent action.

He's quoted as saying, it's the answer to the Negroes need and may become the answer to the most desperate need for all of humanity.

The conditions are still the same.

That's why we can't wait.

That's why we have to read the book.

We gotta have a common basis for understanding.

Read the book.

Read the book.

Read the book.

Read the Read book.

Read the book.

I am accepting the challenge to read Martin Luther King Junior's "Why We Can't Wait".

He was someone who understood what what it's gonna take to solve the issues of racism.

And I challenge you to read this book as well to learn more about his life and the way that he stood up for what is right.

We have capacity.

The question is, is there a will?

And I think the answer about how long it will take will depend on the federal government, the city halls of our various cities, and on white America to a large extent.

This is where we are at this point, and I think white America will determine how long it will be and which way we go in the future.

Well, son, are you ready to take on the world?

Yeah.

I can't wait.

(Piano Music)