Why We Can't Wait (Signet Classics)

by Martin Luther King Jr.

Book Overview

Dr. King's best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963 On April 16, 1963, as the violent events of the Birmingham campaign unfolded in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451527534
• ISBN13: 8581000013242
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Signet
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 0.7" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Life in 1963

King gives an excellent explanation of why the events of 1963 happened specifically in that year.

Insider's guide to Birmingham and The March on Washington

Dr. King in this book, gives the background on the successful demonstrations in Birmingham and The 1963 March on Washington. (My father was at that march). Martin gives the insights on his Non -violent Direct Action approach and how it worked in Birmingham. He also explains what he meant in his I have a dream speech. Those who read this book will see that Dr. King favored a approach to bring African-Americans in the Mainstream that is similiar to Affirmative Action. Dr. King's mistakes were he assumed the whites in the North would favor his approach when he came to their neighborhood (Chicago 1966)and that those who favored ending segregation would support spending government money to help poor Blacks. All Americans should read this book.

Why we protest in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.

I often wonder why we honor Martin Luther King with a holiday. For those who wonder why, read this book. In this book, King uses non violent techniques to force a change in the structure of race relations in this brutal city. The sixties could have been such a violent time in America had it not been for Dr. King.With his techniques, he changed the social landscape in the deep South for the better. Why we can't wait is his reason why blacks should not tolerate a gradual change in race relations, but one that recognizes that change is needed as soon as possible.

Why We Can't Wait

This is a fantastic work by Martin Luther King Jr discussing the 1963 situation in Birmingham, Alabama, where King and others took a big step towards bringing down racism.King's words and ideas are truly provocing, and should be read by all - they are not just applicable to the situation in 1963, but also to our lives today.If everybody read this book and listened to its message, the world would be a better place.

An eye-opener for my generation

I chose to read this book originally as part of a high school assignment, and am very glad that I did so. As a white male born in 1980 who grew up in a predominately white area, I had a hard time understanding why race seems to be such a big issue in this country. As I saw it, slavery happened a long time ago and bigots were idiots to be ignored until they all died off. Why all this talk of discrimination and affirmative action? Why all the pleas for acceptance and peace?This book came as a slap to the face of my preconceived notions. I realized suddenly that many of the men and women I see every day lived during that time, only a few decades ago, when white people didn't let black people drink from the same water fountains, and when blacks could be beaten and abused in the streets for daring to ask for equal treatment. I had heard of this before, but it had always seemed in the distant past. I was repeatedly astonished that such things could have happened in America.My views took a new spin. Suddenly, King's arguments for affirmative action sounded reasonable. How could a black man "pull himself up by his bootstraps" if he has no shoes? How could the children of poor blacks in the south go to college, even if they were allowed to, when their parents couldn't afford the tuition? While I still do not like the idea of racial discrimination of any kind, I now see that there is reason to try to tip the scales back a little, at least for a generation or two.Above all, I was surprised at how Godly a man King was. When I read the statements that his protestors were required to live by, such as "I will pray for those who persecute me," and "I will not strike back in anger," I realized that these people had more spiritual courage in fighting for what was right than I could muster in myself. They were moved by the notion that Christians must love one another regardless of race, and were determined to change society, not in bloody revolution, but by their unity in spirit, by their obvious displays of love, and by the power of prayer.This is a moving book and one that opened my eyes. I recommend it highly for anyone, especially those of us born too late to understand the civil rights movement and the horrors that prompted it firsthand.