Page 79 - 2021-bfw-shea-all-2e

section three
/

Bettmann/Getty Images 5
Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a photograph of a conflict between the police and the striking sanitation workers in Memphis that
King was in town to support.
Look closely at this image and, based on what you read this speech, explain what King might
have found so distressing about the situation.

revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll
of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s never forget it. It said simply,
punctured, you’re drowned in your own blood —
that’s the end of you. Dear Dr. King,
It came out in the New York Times the next I am a ninth-grade student at the White
morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would Plains High School.
have died. Well, about four days later, they And she said,
allowed me, after the operation, after my chest While it should not matter, I would like to
had been opened, and the blade had been taken mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper
out, to move around in the wheel chair in the of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And
hospital. They allowed me to read some of the I read that if you had sneezed, you would have
mail that came in, and from all over the states and died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m
the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but so happy that you didn’t sneeze.
one of them I will never forget. I had received one
from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve And I want to say tonight — I want to say 40
forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a tonight that I too am happy that I didn’t sneeze.
visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been
but I’ve forgotten what that letter said. But there around here in 1960, when students all over
was another letter that came from a little girl, a the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And
young girl who was a student at the White Plains I knew that as they were sitting-in, they were really
63
Copyright © Bedford/St. Martin’s. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
Distributed by BFW Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.

sheaall2e_24428_ch05_002_095.indd 63 09/07/20 5:30 PM