Black History

Reading Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter from the Birmingham Jail on the floor of the United States Senate

NASHVILLE PRIDE — In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned a letter from his cell in the Birmingham Jail, where he and other protestors were detained for leading a series of nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham.

Published

6 years ago

April 21, 2019

Lamar Alexander

By Senator Lamar Alexander

In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned a letter from his cell in the Birmingham Jail, where he and other protestors were detained for leading a series of nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham.

Last week on the Senate floor I participated in a bipartisan commemorative reading of Dr. King’s letter led by Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama. Senator Jones had standing to lead this reading not just because he’s from Alabama, but because of his work as the United States attorney prosecuting Klansmen who blew up a church on 16th Street in Birmingham, killing four children and injuring others.

Sen. Jones noted that the civil rights movement was not too long ago. He was right.

I remember a day in August of 1963 when I was working at the United States Department of Justice as an intern. It was a hot summer day and the Washington streets were filled with people marching. It was about lunchtime when I went outside into that crowd and heard a booming voice from a man who was standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And I heard the words that he hoped his four little children one day would live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. At the time, I don’t know if I was fully understanding what I was seeing and hearing, but I was witnessing Dr. King give his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

A year earlier, in 1962, I had been a senior at Vanderbilt University. At that time, Vanderbilt, a prestigious institution, was desegregating its undergraduate school. I was a part of that effort. But even then, African Americans couldn’t go to the same restaurants, stay in the same motels, or even go to the same bathrooms as White Americans. Again, that was not that long ago.

I was in Memphis recently, and I was with a group of African American leaders and asked: “If this meeting were held 50 years ago, how many of the positions you hold would be represented at this table today by African Americans?” The answer very quickly was “not one.”

The struggle for civil rights is not a snapshot—it is a panorama. As Ben Hooks, former director of the NAACP, used to say, you have to understand that America is a work in progress. We have a long way to go in terms of race relations, but we’ve made great progress since Dr. King wrote this letter from his jail cell in Birmingham.

There is no part of being an American that is more essential than understanding our struggle with race. And the worst grades of our children are not in math and science, but in United States History. This is why remembering and revisiting important events from our country’s past, such as the letter Dr. King wrote from his jail cell, or his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in Washington, are so important.

This article originally appeared in the Nashville Pride.

Lamar Alexander

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

3 hours ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.