You will be evaluated upon addressing the prompts – the content – for a total of 18 points.  Each element must be addressed and discussed.  Analysis is worth 15 points and this is about how you explain and clarify your understanding of the content.  Example:  What are the elements within King’s Letter and WHAT is your understanding of his ideas in that Letter.  This applies to explaining the background to 1963 and you conclusion.  Finally, this is proofread and free of errorts for another 17 points.  Use MLA format.   Please reflect on all these elements.

Why We Can’t Wait

In his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, Dr. King stated:

“For years now I have heard the word “Wait”!  It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity.  This “Wait”! has almost always meant “never”… We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our Constitutional and God given rights… and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter… We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is just denied”.

There are many thoughtful citizens who recognize that race relations have shaped and defined our country.  The struggle continues into to the new millennium.  The events in Birmingham and the summer of 1963 captured the world’s attention.  In this assignment you will write an essay that addresses the following content:

1. Describe the conditions facing blacks in the days preceding and following the events of Birmingham.   
    
2. Assess Dr King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail from the perspective of the promise and the waiting.
    
3. Conclude with an evaluation of where we are today as a nation in terms of race relations.  I want you to be critical and not write about a vision.  We know about the vision, the promise and the creed, but where are we today?  Provide me with examples.
    

The paper is to be typed & double-spaced essay format.  It is very important to address the Letter and not gloss over the content.  Its eloquence stands with I Have a Dream.  The paper is due per the calendar and there are no late papers accepted.  It is worth 50 points.