At the end of the Second World War, those of us who had participated in that conflict were under the impression that if we were triumphant over fascism and the Nazis, that the men and women who returned from that conflict would be celebrated and honored by our nation. Many of us went off to that war and didn’t have the right to vote. Many of us went off to that war and didn’t have the right to participate in the American Dream. We didn’t really think about this thing as a dream until Dr. King articulated it.

As a kid, there was not much I could aspire to, because the achievement of black people in spaces of power and rule and governance was not that evident, and therefore we were diminished in the way we thought we could access power and be part of the American fabric. So we who came back from this war having expectations and finding that there were none to be harvested were put upon to make a decision. We could accept the status quo as it was beginning to reveal itself with these oppressive laws still in place. Or, as had begun to appear on the horizon, stimulated by something Mahatma Gandhi of India had done, we could start this quest for social change by confronting the state a little differently. Let’s do it nonviolently, let’s use passive thinking applied to aggressive ideas, and perhaps we could overthrow the oppression by making it morally unacceptable.

Occasion -   Martin Luther King Jr. discusses the need for action his Letter from Birmingham Jail  in response to several criticisms made by the "A Call for Unity" clergymen, who agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not the streets. Notice the conditions in which he wrote the letter. He wrote it in Birmingham Jail. He began writing his response by writing on the margins of a newspaper, and finished writing on this pad (shown above) that his attorneys permitted him. 

Audience - King's audience is the general public and church affiliated members.
Purpose - His purpose is to persuade religious leaders and the general public to believe in his cause and to agree that his nonviolence action is just.

Subject -  King explains the four steps of nonviolent protest: fact finding, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. After speaking with the officials of Birmingham, King concluded that he needed to take action by leading the public demonstration. He doesn't regret his decision, nor should he. King counter argues that while some may say it is not necessary to create tension through non-violent protests, tension is necessary for progress. 

Occasion -  The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The nonviolent campaign was coordinated by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Many whites opposed the nonviolent demonstrations. On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing." 

Audience - The overall Birmingham community and populace was the audience.

Purpose - Their purpose was to convince activists to engage in local negotiations and use the courts if their rights were being denied rather than to protest.

Subject:  "A Call for Unity" was an open letter published in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 12, 1963, by eight local white clergymen in response to civil rights demonstrations taking place in the area at the time. In the letter, they took issue with events "directed and led in part by outsiders", and were against the creation of "tension."

For next three years, science fiction program goes where no TV series has gone before.

The first issue of Rolling Stone, a new magazine devoted to music and popular culture, debuts featuring John Lennon on the cover.

The first computer transmission is carried by ARPANET at 10:30 PM on October 29 from a host computer at UCLA to another host computer at Stanford.    

Program is first broadcast on NET, predecessor to PBS.