In an interview on Progressivism

What is your third book?

Personally, I think the Letter From the Birmingham Jail from Martin Luther King was as eloquent and as influential a document on the civil rights movement and progressive thinking about rights as anything that I’ve ever read. It’s one of the most powerful pieces I’ve ever read, period. On Martin Luther King day it’s one of my favourite things to remind me, it’s so powerful. It’s unfortunate many people have never read it or if they have they have forgotten the power of it.

Do you think of it as a context to civil rights in the United States or human rights?

Both. It was significantly addressed to the whole question of patience, and why they weighed what he was doing and measuring the church and its involvement, so it clearly applies to the whole question of public responsibility by any leader anywhere at any time. I find it monumental. To me it’s just very, very powerful – one of the most powerful political documents I think there is. It’s very influential, very eloquent.

It animates a lot of activism that we’ve experienced.

It’s a call to conscience. It also reminds us of the sacrifice that large-scale injustice requires and also explains why civil disobedience is required.