Sublime

“I believe.” “There are two types of laws,” he shared, “those that are just and those that are unjust. A just law,” Dr. King expounded, “is a man-made code that squares with the moral law. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.… Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality i

“The first conclusion I offer is that the most deep-seated and destructive of all the causes of the Negro problem is still the prejudice of the white man,” wrote Bundy in a lofty but introspective president’s report. “Prejudice is a subtle and insidious vice. It can consume those who think themselves immune to it. It can masquerade as kindness, sym

A very simple illustration is the operation of Jim Crow travel in trains in the southern part of the United States. On such a train the porter, when he is not in line of duty, may ride only in the Jim Crow coach—for the train porter is a Negro. But the members of the train crew who are not Negroes—the conductor, brakeman, baggageman—when they are n

“Wanting to make it happen faster is just ego, Guthrie. It’s thinking, ‘Oh boy, God’s in deep shit without my help.’ It’s thinking we have to get people to do what we want them to do for their own good. But we haven’t been trying to make anybody do anything, and the only people who join us are people who want to, and that’s why it all feels right.

Instead, you must directly apply your labor to meeting your needs in such a way that you become invested in that solution, in the very literal sense that you depend on it, so that when the powers-that-be threaten it, you’re prepared to defend it. This is not about individuals. This is about organizing. This is about community. The second principle

All men, Locke argued, are born equal, with a natural right to life, liberty, and property; to protect those rights, they erect governments by consent. Slavery, for Locke, was no part either of a state of nature or of civil society. Slavery was a matter of the law of nations, “nothing else, but the state of war continued, between a lawful conqueror

It also illustrates his awareness of the continued fear that existed in many black communities all over the United States as the Civil Rights Movement grew and expanded. Black lives were on the line daily, and many were subjected to abuse and even death.