Why We Can't Wait: Modern Classics

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially divided city in the United States. African-Americans lacked basic rights, earned less than half of what whites earned, and were regularly given unjust jail sentences for protesting. The Birmingham Campaign - a Civil Rights movement launched by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in early 1963 - aimed to bring about economic and social change for African-Americans, in Birmingham as well as across the United States, whilst demonstrating to the world the enormous power of nonviolent direct action. 

 

In Why We Can't Wait, King recounts the remarkable story of Birmingham in vivid detail. Tracing the history of the struggle for civil rights back to its beginnings in colonial-era slavery, King outlines the challenges of the present and the future, assessing the work to be done both in and beyond Birmingham to bring about full equality for African-Americans. Above all, he offers an eloquent and penetrating analysis of the events and pressures that propelled the Civil Rights movement from lunch counter sit-ins and prayer marches to the forefront of American consciousness.

 

As resonant today as it was upon publication in 1964, Why We Can't Wait is both a unique document of a pivotal moment in American history and an enduring testament to the wise, courageous and endlessly hopeful vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.