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.ÿþKing defied a federal injunction to halt the Alabama protests.Dressedin blue jeans and a white shirt open at the collar he explained to sometwenty newsmen: In the past we have abided by federal injunctionsout of respect for the forthright and consistent leadership that the fed-eral judiciary has given in establishing the principle of integration as thelaw of the land.However, we are now confronted with recalcitrant forcesin the Deep South that will use the courts to perpetuate the unjust andillegal systems of racial separation. 43 He said that his attorneys wouldattempt to have the temporary injunction set aside and that he and histop aide Rev.Ralph Abernathy planned to lead a demonstration thatFriday.On 12 April, a symbolically selected Good Friday, Rev.King wasarrested.In the margins of the Birmingham News, King began to write hisclassic Letter from a Birmingham Jail :For years now I have heard the word Wait! It rings in the ear of everyNegro with piercing familiarity.This Wait has almost always meant Never. We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that Justice too long delayed is justice denied. We have waited for more than340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights.The nations of Asiaand Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political indepen-dence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup ofcoffee at a lunch counter.Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts ofsegregation to say, Wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynchyour mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers atwhim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even killyour black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of yourtwenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of povertyin the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tonguetwisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can t go to the public amusement park thathas just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyeswhen she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see omi-nous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, andsee her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious[ 9 4 ] M a r c h O n , D r.M a r t i n L u t h e r K i n g
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