Why We Can't Wait

An important element of King's argument for the urgency of change is his perspective on American history. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," King attacks "the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom" (98), most specifically "the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ill"(99). The idea that America is on an inevitable march to progress is still one that is widely held by many; in this book, King reflects on the many ways that America has failed to progress, most particularly in terms of the history of race and racism in America. In order to make this argument, King creates revised narratives of American history through the lens of race.

King's focus on history is apparent throughout the book. The first line of the introduction—"It is the beginning of the year of our Lord 1963" (xi)—uses the diction of the chronicle of events but presents instead the contemporary scandal of deprivation in the lives of black youth. Their deprivation isn't just physical, however. It is also a psychological one that emerges from the "pale history books" (xiii) that distort and conceal the contributions African-Americans have made to American history.

The distortion of the past also has the effect of distortion of the present, a point King makes by shifting to a discussion of current events immediately after this passage, including the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation as the achievement of true liberty for African-Americans. King's description of the mythical boy and the girl is just the first of several imagined and factual accounts of the impact of inequality on African-Americans.

King also offers a revised narrative of more contemporary history by recasting the Civil Rights Movement as "America's third revolution" (2). King uses the language of revolution to make the case that African-Americans' activism is deeply American. For example, he uses a comparison between the Birmingham protests and the Battle of Bunker Hill, a symbolic victory (but a military defeat) for American colonists during the American Revolution, to argue that the setbacks after Birmingham paled in comparison to the symbolic importance of a victory for nonviolence (139).

Opponents of the Civil Rights Movement and uncertain people on the sidelines were likely to have seen King and his fellow activists as rabble rousers who posed a threat to law and order in society or, in the context of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, agitators whose primarily goal was to destabilize the country. Putting the activists’ work in the context of the American Revolution is King's effort to legitimize the Civil Rights Movements and counter these assertions of disloyalty.

King's most powerful recasting of American history comes in the chapter, "The Summer of Our Discontent." While there are many moments when King uses soaring, hopeful rhetoric to describe his belief in American ideals of liberty and equality for all, the America King describes in this chapter is one that suffers from a profound racism that goes all the way back to its founding. The problem in America, according to King, is that "[f]or too long the depth of racism in American life has been underestimated"(146). America is such a racist country because it "was born in genocide" of Native Americans and insists on rewriting this genocide as "a noble crusade" (146-147).

In this and other chapters, King reveals and denounces these racist roots to help his audience understand that African-Americans have been extremely patient.King's rewriting of American history as both a hopeful one, grounded in liberty, and one that has denied that liberty to African-Americans allows him to explain why African-Americans can no longer wait on change.

Nonviolent direct action is a form of activism that seeks to create conditions that directly pressure the power structure to change or to make clear for a larger audience that the power structure is engaged in oppression that should not be allowed to stand. In Why We Can't Wait, King advocates for nonviolent direct action as the method that is most likely to bring African-Americans success in their fight for civil rights. King's belief in nonviolent direct action is a response to competing models for forcing change and his study of resistance in American history.

It is important to understand that at this moment, nonviolent direct action was just one of several possible responses to the continued oppression of African-Americans. Other groups advocated for violence or armed resistance during the 1960s, while some figures argued for a more gradual approach to change because of their fear of civil disorder. For example, Malcolm X, then a member of the Nation of Islam, argued for black separation from whites and armed resistance when attacked.King's support for nonviolent direct action comes out of a belief that these other approaches were ineffective or even counterproductive.

King believed that nonviolence could provide the opportunity for an intervention in negative white American perceptions of African-Americans. In American popular culture, African-Americans were still frequently represented as undisciplined, uneducated, uncouth, sometimes violent people who at best could be slowly integrated into larger American society. Belief in African-American inferiority was a foundational part of segregationist and racist arguments for completely and permanently excluding African-Americans from civil society.

As King makes clear in his descriptions of the rigorous training protestors had to go through and the ten-point pledge they had to sign, these activists were forced to demonstrate iron control, dignity, and courage in the face of attacks from Bull Connor's dogs, violent opponents, distractions from would-be supporters who engaged in violence, and beatings. The images and news accounts of their actions served as evidence that African-Americans were people like everyone else or, even better, ordinary people who could show extraordinary courage for the sake of their liberty.

Beyond the psychological benefits of nonviolence, King argues that American history has shown that since people of color are outgunned and outnumbered by the power structure, violence will inevitably end in defeat. King's major support for this argument is the history of armed resistance by Native Americans. Despite their efforts to resist the encroachment of whites, Native Americans were ultimately, in King's account, defeated and confined to reservations. The violence between settlers and Native Americans served as racists' rationale for this permanent subordinate status, a fate King believes can be avoided by African-Americans if they choose nonviolence.

While King's embrace of nonviolence reflects his belief in Christianity, it grows out of pragmatic concerns, such as its ability to improve representations of African-American identity and his belief that violence has not historically been effective in securing change.

Why We Can’t Wait is primarily an effort to garner national support for the Civil Rights Movement. An important part of that effort is to educate Americans about the character of African-Americans. While King acknowledges throughout his book the importance of confronting segregation legally, he also engages in efforts to change the negative perception of African-Americans into a more positive one. His audience for these efforts is not only whites: King believed that African-Americans who had internalized negative stereotypes also needed to see models of black identity that were worthy of respect.

During the 1960s, the prevailing representation of African-Americans was a negative one. African-Americans were seen as inferior people who were content with their lot and incapable of becoming full citizens because of inherent flaws in their culture and biology. This supposed inferiority was also thought to explain their low economic status. Segregationist laws and social customs were explicitly designed to enforce African-Americans’ low status.The more intimate relationships whites had with African-Americans were economic ones, in which African-Americans were dependent on white employers and were thus less likely to candidly state their feelings about the oppression they suffered.

In Why We Can’t Wait, King uses several approaches to counter dehumanizing stereotypes of African-Americans. King first of all uses a sociological approach to explain the low social and economic status of African-Americans. In the introduction to the book and in the chapter,“Bull Connor’s Birmingham,” King highlights the economic, social, and psychological pressures that produce the deprivation typically associated with African-Americans. These narratives focus on representative children. In“Bull Connor’s Birmingham,” King explicitly asks the reader to “place [him or herself] in the positionof a Negro baby born and brought up to physical maturity in Birmingham” (45).

These passages represent a society that almost uniformly makes it impossible for African-Americans to fulfill any of the elements of the American Dream. The sympathetic portrayal of African-Americans in these passages pushes readers to feel empathy for African-Americans, to understand that their position in society is the result of intentionally discriminatory institutions rather than inherent inferiority, and to identify with African-Americans as human beings.

Another method King uses to intervene in the representation of African-Americans is his inclusion of examples of black excellence. King mentions historical figures who contributed to early American history and contemporary figures like Ralph Bunche,the first African-American man to win a Nobel Prize for Peace. King is careful to show that these African-Americans succeeded against all odds; in the case of more contemporary figures like Bunche, he also explains that these successful figures were exceptions and successful within the narrow confines of tokenism (70).

The most powerful example of black excellence is King himself. King’s writing shows his erudition. He cites precedents and sources that range from the Bible all the way to philosophers like Martin Buber. King’s writing is elegant, persuasive, logical, and creative. He is a master of rhetoric. Despite his humility, the name checks in the book include influential figures like India’s Prime Minister Nehru, three presidents, and the highly-respected journalists of Meet the Press.His ability to mingle with such important people testifies to the exemplary nature of his life. The engagement of these powerful figures with King has the effect of showing the reader the importance of the movement for civil rights and the African-Americans who support it.

As is apparent in King’s dismissal of tokenism as real change, King’s major focus is not on famous African-Americans who managed to be the first or the only ones to succeed. The star of his efforts to change the representation of African-Americans is the mass of ordinary African-Americans.King’s celebration of ordinary people is most prominent when he describes them in crowds, facing down violence in their marches in Birmingham and carrying themselves with dignity during the March on Washington. The marchers who stood before Bull Connor’s water hoses were “unafraid and unmoving” (120). King describes the typical African-American who protests as having found his or her “fighting spirit” and “power,” “[v]oluntarily facing death in many places” (134).

While the bravery of these protestors is an example to whites, King’s hope is that the biggest change will come in the psychology of every African-American. “The full dimensions of victory can be found only by comprehending the change within the minds of millions of Negroes,” according to King, once they finally rejected internalized notions of inferiority and see each African-American as “the equal of any man” (135). King underscores this transformation by highlighting the ways in which African-Americanparticipation in protests puts them firmly in the camp of the early American colonists who led the American Revolution.

In the final analysis, King's goal is to help his readers, black and white, to understand that African-Americans have the same capacity for greatness and mediocrity as any other people in the U.S. By providing context to explain African-Americans’ low social status and examples of black heroism and excellence, King transforms black representation.