Letter from a Birmingham Jail

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On April 16th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was sitting in a stark jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, where he had been arrested for engaging in nonviolent direct action. An ally had smuggled a newspaper into the jail that contained the recently published piece, A Call To Unity, written by eight local white clergymen […]

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Bloody Sunday and the Selma March

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By the time the historic Selma March occurred on March 21st, 1965, more than 3,000 protesters in Selma, Alabama had already been arrested, and demonstrators had twice begun the fated march, once to be turned back by heavy repression in an event known as “Bloody Sunday”. On March 7th, 1965, a group of marchers organized […]

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

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The third Monday in January is honored as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States, a day when we commemorate the legacy of one of the great leaders of our time, and also remember the long road ahead of us toward racial justice in our country. The King Center says, ” During […]

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Without Kindness, We Lose Our Common Dignity

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As I’m riding the overnight train from Chicago to New Mexico, an elderly African-American man in a wheelchair is taken off the train by paramedics, police, and the conductor. Earlier, I had heard the car attendant say something about a minor heart attack. The man, a double amputee, shivers in the cold night air as […]

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