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Letter from Birmingham Jail: Section 3: Waiting Summary

Without Even the Courtesy of a Stool at the Lunch Counter

  • Dr. King claims that the Black community has always been told that "now isn't the time," and that they just have to be patient for justice to come.
  • But segregation is completely wrong, he says, so how about no.
  • He proclaims that history teaches us that people with less power get ignored unless they organize and protest injustices being inflicted upon them.
  • He says that if the clergymen knew the suffering and oppression of Black people in America, they wouldn't tell anyone to wait.
  • Dr. King fires his pathos-torpedoes by asking how Black parents are supposed to explain this sad state of affairs to their kids.