Negotiation Of Injustice In Birmingham

I understand that life isn't easy for you and your fellow African Americans. I appreciate that you are trying to settle this in a non-violent way; however, all you are doing is disturbing our way of life. We have lived this way for a number of years and we see no reason to change this way of living. The southern life for the black people should remain the way it is. To begin, we would like to ask you why you are really in Birmingham. In your letter, you stated, “injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.” We don't understand what you mean by this statement. What happens here in Birmingham is very different than what happens in the world. We understand that slavery is everywhere but protesting here in Birmingham is not going to help the situation else where. Birmingham is a small portion of your problem and we would like it if you would instead protest in your own cities instead of disrupting life in ours. You have pointed out several white men that have treated you unfairly during your lifetime. We would like to point out that only a select few white people feel that way about African Americans.
We believe that you may have collected facts but that they are influenced by your feelings. You have pointed out that you have tried to negotiate with many people of authority and that nothing went your way. Maybe this is for a reason. Self purification, as we understand, is basically coming to terms with the situation. If you have come to terms with the situation, then why continue to try to change it? As we stated before, we appreciate that you are trying to solve this without using violent protest but your form of “direct action” is just disrupting the way we live. It is affecting life as Americans know it and that is a problem. We don't believe your four-step plan will help you this