Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Fifty years ago today Martin Luther King wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail. He had gone there to protest because so many downtown businesses still had "Whites Only" signs. He was arrested and put in jail. While there he wrote a long letter to his fellow pastors justifying why he did what he did.

I've read parts of it before, but not the whole thing. It is quite a thorough justification and worth reading. And, yes, it is long.

A couple excerpts:

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

And…

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

The text of the entire letter was posted by Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin. Yes, that is a gay site. We still face oppression.