(全段翻译) 你们声明中的一个论点说我和我的同伙们在伯明翰采取直接行动的时机不当。有人这样问道：“为什么你们不给新一届的市政府时间来做呢？”我对这个质问唯一的回答是伯明翰市的本届政府跟上届政府一样需要受到刺激才会做。我们可悲地、错误地以为 Albert Boutwell 当选了市长就会给伯明翰市带来黄金时代。尽管 Boutwell 先生比 Connor 先生要温和得多，然而他们都是种族隔离主义者，坚决地要维护目前的现状。我希望 Boutwell 先生能够清楚地看到群起反对解除种族隔离是徒劳的，但是如果没有民权运动的献身者给他压力的话，他会看不到这一点。朋友们，我们必须告诉你们，没有一项民权活动的成功不是在坚定的法律和非暴力压力之下所取得的。可悲的是，历史的事实告诉我们，特权集团几乎不会自觉地放弃他们的特权，而个人可能因为道德感而放弃不正义的态度。但是，正象 Reinhold Niebuhr 提醒我们的那样，集团比个人更倾向于做不道德的事情。（选自马丁路德金《发自伯明翰市立监狱的一封信》)(The whole paragraph tanslated here.)

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. (From Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16th, 1963)

untimely [时机不当]

query [质问]

prod [刺激]

millennium [黄金时代]

gentle [温和]

futility [无用]

desegregation [解除隔离]

devotee [献身者]

lamentably [可悲地]

privileged [有特权的]

voluntarily [自觉地]

unjust [不公正的，非正义的]

posture [态度]

immoral [不道德]

（ 陈森森 sensenchen2002@yahoo.com ）