462 ChApTEr 20 | the BreaKDoWn oF ConsensUs | period eight 19 45 –198 0Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to
put the issue where it is supposed to be—and force everybody to see that there
are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry,
going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come
out. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: We know how it’s coming
out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to
sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory....Martin Luther King Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in Martha Simmons and Frank
A. Thomas, eds., Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons,
1750 to the Present (New York: Norton, 2010), 518–519.document 20.10 eDMunD wHiTe, letter to Ann and Alfred corn
1969Edmund White (b. 1940) followed his partner from the Midwest to New York and wit-
nessed the birth of the gay rights movement in the riots that started at the Stonewall Inn
in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969. In this July 8, 1969, letter to friends, he describes
the initial riot.Dear Ann and Alfred,
Well, the big news here is Gay Power. It’s the most extraordinary thing. It all
began two weeks ago on a Friday night. The cops raided the... [Stonewall Inn],
that mighty Bastille which you know has remained impregnable for three years,
so brazen and so conspicuous that one could only surmise that the Mafia was
paying off the pigs handsomely. Apparently, however, a new public official, Ser-
geant Smith, has taken over the Village, and he’s a peculiarly diligent lawman.
In any event, a mammoth paddy wagon, as big as a school bus, pulled up to the
Wall and about ten cops raided the joint. The kids were all shooed into the street;
soon other gay kids and straight spectators swelled the ranks to, I’d say, about a
thousand people. Christopher Street was completely blocked off and the crowds
swarmed from the [Village] Vo i c e office down to the Civil War hospital.pr ACTICINg historical Thinking
Identify: What is King’s purpose in this speech?
Analyze: What does King mean by his use of the word “sacrifice” in the context
of this speech?
Evaluate: King’s speech refers to the past as a prelude to his vision. What other
documents in this chapter follow the same pattern? Why are prophetic visions
often grounded in a deep knowledge of the past?21_STA_2012_ch20_447-472.indd 462 16/04/15 6:13 PM