Why We Can't Wait

In Chapter Three, King recounts the strategy behind, and planning before, the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.

In the initial paragraphs, King provides a more detailed description of the political and social conditions in Birmingham that made it the perfect place to use nonviolent direct action. As a city, Birmingham seemed to exist in a vacuum that ignored all the significant legal foundations of equality in the U.S. King asks the reader to imagine the life of an African-American baby born in Birmingham in order to dramatize the impact of this backwardness on African-Americans.

King zeroes in on the role of Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor, a powerful figure in city government, in oppressing African-Americans in defiance of the federal government. The hypothetical African-Americanchild in Birmingham would grow up in “violence and brutality” created by people like Connor, extending all the way to the lynching of African-Americans and the bombings of black churches and homes (47). In short, the Birmingham in which this child grew up would be one dominated by fear.

Whites who tried to abide by federal law or who inadvertently violated segregationist laws were also targets. While some whites were fearful of change and felt guilt, others, supposedly more moderate, also failed to do the right thing out of fear.