by jpitney | Apr 29, 2024 | Civility, Higher Education, Protest
David French: Civil disobedience is distinct from First Amendment protected speech. It involves both breaking an unjust law and accepting the consequences. There is a long and honorable history of civil disobedience in the United States, but true civil disobedience...
by jpitney | Jan 15, 2024 | Civil Rights, Religion
In Why We Can’t Wait, Dr. King reproduced a form by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, the Birmingham Affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Fred Shuttlesworth, President. I HEREBY PLEDGE MYSELF- MY PERSON AND MY BODY- TO THE...
by jpitney | Jan 16, 2023 | African American, Civil Rights, Uncategorized
Daniel Stid: We have to avoid the temptation to domesticate Martin Luther King Jr. It is comforting to see him only as the aspirational dreamer of a color-blind society, a vision especially reassuring to white Americans, and leave things at that. But there was a...
by jpitney | Jan 17, 2022 | civic virtue, Civil Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Patriotism, Religion
The “I Have a Dream” speech contains many references and allusions to key ideas, sites, and documents of American civic culture. The text below contains relevant links in red. Many passages in the speech refer or allude to Bible verses, spiritual songs,...
by jpitney | Jan 17, 2022 | Civil Rights
Letter from a Birmingham Jail: Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But...
