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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. MLK mentions a white businessman who asks if he's "just imagining it" or what?

2. MLK states that throughout their campaign they had been seeking to establish dialogue with the city leaders to negotiate how many major issues?

3. When several hundred Birmingham Negros decided to hold a prayer meeting near the city jail where did they meet?

4. When MLK talks of the good will withering he tells of the City Council refusing to do what?

5. When the young Negro started to ask someone to save him in the room filling with poisonous gas, why does MLK state that that person would care if the young Negro died?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the relevant question that MLK mentions that must be asked to atone for the injustices the Negro has faced in the past?

2. Why does MLK state that "we were all involved with" John F. Kennedy's death?

3. What were the two reasons that MLK accepted bond to come out of jail in the beginning of "Black and White Together"?

4. What does MLK say is the difference between just laws and unjust laws?

5. How does MLK answer the questions of the clergymen of "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Aren't negotiations better?"

6. What did MLK wonder about the media writers when they accused the campaign officials of "using" their children "in this fashion"?

7. What did scientific observers place in the sealed death chambers where poison gas was to be administered to the victims of capital punishment?

8. What does MLK state that the American Negro knows through painful experience?

9. When MLK talks about the number of S.C.L.C. affiliates jumping from 85 to 100, he mentions that more than one million Americans attended solidarity demonstrations in what cities?

10. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," who is the letter addressed to and why is it written?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are some of your favorite words that MLK writes? Why did these words appeal to you more than others? What kind of feelings did these words evoke in you as a reader? How do you think MLK was feeling at the time he wrote these particular words? Explain the reason for picking the particular excerpts. How do you think MLK changed as a person during the events of this book? Explain your reasoning by using specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

The book, Why We Can't Wait, is written by Martin Luther King, Jr. about the time of the civil rights movement during the 1960s in which Birmingham became the center of attention for the nation to watch those "fighting" for freedom. How do you think MLK's perspective on the details of these events affected the reader of the book? How would the details of the events be told differently if we were reading a book by Bull Connor? How about a book by Jesse Jackson? Explain your answers and use evidence from the book to support those answers.

Essay Topic 3

In 1963 the United States was preparing to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Big productions were in the works for this celebration. What were some of the things that MLK mentions in Chapter 1 that the nation was going to do to celebrate this event? What kind of emotions and desires does this inspire in MLK? What kind of emotions and desires does this inspire in the Negro population as a whole?

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