Perspective

Martin Luther King, Jr. is a minister and Negro civil rights leader of the 1960s. He writes "Why We Can't Wait" to resolve questions about events and forces underlying the Civil Rights Movement. This is a short history of the American Negro's struggle from slavery through specific civil rights activities in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama and the March on Washington. Key issue of "Why We Can't Wait" is the centennial celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. King looks back one hundred years to the Civil War era as a benchmark to evaluate progress of American Negro civil rights. While a nation prepares to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation centennial, MLK presents the condition of America's most segregated and discriminatory city, Birmingham, Alabama.

The author uses detail descriptions of the Birmingham boycotts and lunch counter sit-in demonstrations to illustrate the effective use of nonviolence in the civil rights movement. The city...