"There comes a time"

On the first day of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the African American community there. He urged them to fight racial segregation by supporting the bus boycott. An excerpt from King's speech appears below. Read the speech carefully, and then answer the questions that follow.

There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an a/pine November. There comes a time.

We are here, we are here this evening because we're tired now. And I want to say, that we are not here advocating violence.... I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation that ... the only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all. And certainly, certainly, this is the glory of America, with all of its faults. This is the glory of our democracy....

As we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together.... Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people, a black people, ... a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we're gonna do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late. As we proceed with our program, let us think of these things.

--Martin Luther King Jr., Dec. 5, 1955

1. What weapon did King suggest people use to fight segregation?--

2. What does King think the glory of democracy is?--

3. What did King mean when he said, "People get tired of being pushed out of the glimmering sunlight of life's July, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November"?--

4. What are three other metaphors (comparisons) King used to give his speech impact?--

5. King had only about 20 minutes to prepare this speech. He later recalled his thoughts before the address: "What could I say to keep [people] courageous and prepared for positive action and yet devoid of hate and resentment? Could the militant and the moderate be combined in a single speech?" Do you think King's speech was effective? If so, how did King achieve his goal? Cite examples from his speech.--

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