How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. (6)
In order to be courageous, you need to have something to be courageous against. In Dr. King's and his followers' case, it was actual terrorism and physical brutality. It was this horrible reality that elevated their movement to spiritual power and historical proportions. Notice how he backs up his assertion with facts and lays down that they're facts so don't try to argue with them.
Quote #2
Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" (7)
The demonstrators were very deliberately told what to expect from the police and from white supremacist citizens, though they probably knew from newspaper articles and general gossip and word-of-mouth what might be waiting for them in their picket lines and at the lunch counters. At the very least, they had to be ready to spend a night or two in the plush accommodations at the local jail—and, we hope, not in the local hospital's Emergency Room or morgue, which is where too many of them ended up over the years.
Quote #3
But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; […] when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; […] when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "n*****," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. (12)
Sometimes courage comes precisely from the bad treatment an individual or community has endured. When your life is filled with fear and despair, taking courage and action to change that life seems to be the only choice vs. just keeping your head down to survive.
Quote #4
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. (17)
King cites examples of courage he knows these clergymen were totally familiar with. In both examples, the courageous people are facing certain death. As people faithful in a God that would save their souls, they felt that sacrificing their lives for what they felt was right was A-OK. Dr. King often talked in a similar way about the death that was always around the corner for him. The end of his "Mountaintop" speech deals with this idea directly. That was the last speech he ever gave.
Quote #5
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows. (27)
The sad truth is that people often aren't courageous on other peoples' or communities' behalf. Many white moderates in the South knew how bad life was for Black citizens, but were too scared to fight for change. The Temple bombing in Atlanta in 1958 (remember it in Driving Miss Daisy?) was likely a direct response to its rabbi's support for desegregation.