Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that weve got to stay together. Weve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaohs court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, thats the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity. Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, weve got to keep attention on that. Thats always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didnt get around to that. Now were going to march again, and weve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of Gods children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. Thats the issue. And weve got to say to the nation: We know how its coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. We arent going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they dont know what to do. Ive seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, Aint gonna let nobody turn me around. Bull Connor next would say, Turn the fire hoses on. And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didnt know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didnt relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldnt stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and wed go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and wed just go on singing Over my head I see freedom in the air. And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, Take em off, and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, We Shall Overcome. And every now and then wed get in jail, and wed see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldnt adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. Now weve got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and were going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, Be true to what you said on paper. If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadnt committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we arent going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we arent going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on. We need all of you. And you know whats beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. Its a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, When God speaks who can but prophesy? Again with Amos, Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, and hes anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor. And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; hes been to jail for struggling; hes been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggle, but hes still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers arent concerned about anything but themselves. And Im always happy to see a relevant ministry. Its all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! Its all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who cant eat three square meals a day. Its all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, Gods preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do. Now the other thing well have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? Thats power right there, if we know how to pool it. We dont have to argue with anybody. We dont have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We dont need any bricks and bottles. We dont need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, God sent us by here, to say to you that youre not treating his children right. And weve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where Gods children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you. And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Harts bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they havent been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right. But not only that, weve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a bank-in movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. Im not asking you something that we dont do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an insurance-in. Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here. Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that weve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. Weve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together. I WONDER WHAT HAPPEN?
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:26:29 +0000
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