MLK's Philosophical & Theological Legacy

From the “very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland,” Alabama Governor George Wallace, in his 1963 Inaugural Address, famously summarized his position on one of the most divisive national political issues of his time: “Segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.” A few months after Governor Wallace’s inauguration, a group of civil rights protesters, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., descended on Birmingham in a campaign of deliberate disobedience to the segregation ordinances of one of Alabama’s most racially divided cities. Images of peaceful protesters being sprayed with water hoses and attacked by police dogs soon galvanized the nation, and in April a group of white Alabama clergymen published “A Call for Unity” in a local newspaper, urging civil rights protesters to adopt a court-focused litigation strategy rather than taking to the streets in defiance of local law.