MLK Disappointed with Civil Rights Bill

In this clip Dr. King expresses his dissatisfaction with the Civil Rights Act of 1960 in an interview with Meet the Press on NBC. Check out the chick in the hat and rhinestone specks, Ms. May Craig. She's questioning the tactic of civil disobedience, equating it with randomly deciding which laws to follow and which to break. In doing so she's arguing against breaking laws that are unjust, when the goal of society should be justice. Not blind obedience to any law, just or unjust.

What is actually being said is don't push it. Wait. Justice will come. Don't fight. Don't break laws to get there. The law will get around to you eventually. Your chance at equality will come. But it never comes. You have to push it. British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone said, "Justice delayed is justice denied."

What's ironic is the fact that she was a female journalist, a member of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association, and must have been the victim of the same kinds of efforts to slow her progress into the male dominated world of journalism. In fact some of the same protest methods were used in the Women's Suffrage Movement. It's an irony that stands out as starkly as the hat on her head.

How Far We've Come: MLK on Speaks on Non-Violent Reistance

Sometimes you when you're in the middle of the crapstorm of all the stuff that is happening today, it is very easy to forget just how far we've come. Sometimes it takes sitting down and taking a good look at what happened then just to appreciate it. I think in truth it gives you both perspectives. It also shows you how far we haven't come, and that's not in any way to minimize the gains we have made, but to remind us we still have far to go. When you see that many of the situations we are dealing with today are, if not the same in actual substance, are similar in the way we deal with them.

There are still those who will use every rationalization and every other means possible to prevent change and hinder progress. They use the same methods they did then. Focusing on the divisions between peoples of different races, ethnic origins, religions, or economic status and using them to divide us. The struggle is the same, but it has moved to different fronts, which proves there has been progress. Much still needs to be done. On this the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King, is a good time to remember both.

MSNBC has posted a number of these historical clips on their site and I'll try to post a few more today and over the next couple days.