PSAT Reading Practice Test 13

Questions 1-9 refer to the following information.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

This passage is adapted from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

…I think I should give the reason for my being
in Birmingham, since you have been influenced
by the argument of "outsiders coming in." I have
the honor of serving as president of the Southern
05Christian Leadership Conference, an organization
operating in every Southern state with headquar-
ters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five
affiliate organizations all across the South, one be-
ing the Alabama Christian Movement for Human
10Rights. Whenever necessary and possible we share
staff, educational, and financial resources with our
affiliates. Several months ago our local affiliate
here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to en-
gage in a nonviolent direct action program if such
15were deemed necessary. We readily consented and
when the hour came we lived up to our promises.
So I am here, along with several members of my
staff, because we were invited here. I am here be-
cause I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond
20this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is
here….
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness
of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in
Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens
25in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of
destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all
indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the
30narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone
who lives inside the United States can never be
considered an outsider anywhere in this country….
You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins,
marches, etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You
35are exactly right in your call for negotiation.
Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action.
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a
crisis and establish such creative tension that
a community that has constantly refused to
40negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks
so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be
ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as
a part of the work of the nonviolent resister. This
may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that
45I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly
worked and preached against violent tension, but
there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension
that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt
that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind
50so that individuals could rise from the bondage of
myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of
creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must
see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create
the kind of tension in society that will help men
55rise from the dark depths of prejudice and rac-
ism to the majestic heights of understanding and
brotherhood. So the purpose of the direct action
is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will
inevitably open the door to negotiation. We, there-
60fore, concur with you in your call for negotiation.
Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged
down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue
rather than dialogue….
My friends, I must say to you that we have
65not made a single gain in civil rights without
determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History
is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged
groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.
Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily
70give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold
Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more
immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that
freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;
75it must be demanded by the oppressed….
For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It
rings in the ear of every African American with
a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost
always meant "never." It has been a tranquilizing
80thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a
moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant
of frustration. We must come to see with the
distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too
long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for
85more than three hundred and forty years for our
constitutional and God-given rights. The nations
of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed
toward the goal of political independence, and
we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the
90gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter….