Current Book
Why We Can't Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Book Review
On April 16, 1963, as the violent events of the Birmingham campaign unfolded in the city’s streets, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in response to local religious leaders’ criticism of the campaign. The resulting piece of extraordinary protest writing, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was widely circulated and published in numerous periodicals. After the conclusion of the campaign and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Dr. King further developed the ideas introduced in the letter in Why We Can’t Wait, which tells the story of African American activism in the spring and summer of 1963. During this time, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially segregated city in the United States, but the campaign launched by Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others demonstrated to the world the power of nonviolent direct action. Read more...
Book Nominator and MLK Initiative Member
Jerry L. Demings, Orange County Mayor
Comment: I encourage you to join the Orange County MLK Initiative Book Club. This month features one of my favorite books: “Why We Can’t Wait”, written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I say that’s one of my favorite books because in the book, Dr. King talks about the fact that wait almost always means never. So, I want to say if we want to change the world around us, the communities that we live in, wait almost always means never. If not us, then who. If not now, then when. We must get engaged in order to bring about the change in the world around us. So I encourage you, again, to read Dr. King’s book “Why We Can’t Wait”.
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