In August, 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King — imprisoned in Birmingham, Alabama for taking part in an anti-segregation demonstration — was on the receiving end of a public statement issued by a group of white religious leaders who asserted that while they agreed with King's civil rights goals, he was pushing too hard, and too fast, for change.

Today "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," King's 7,000 word handwritten response to those who did not share his sense of moral urgency, is as painfully relevant as it was over a half century ago. One passage in particular calls the conscience: "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is…the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."

King's words feel both historic and painfully right-this-moment in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, and days of necessary, impassioned protests. What has endured alongside the racism and inequality that plagues America is the unwillingness of far too many Americans to confront it. And to enter into true common cause with black, brown, and marginalized communities that are fighting, literally, for their lives.

Over the last few days, a word that I have heard over and over again to describe the unequal conditions in our country and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery is "heartbreaking."

But it is not enough — it has never been enough — for our hearts to break over injustice. Compassion is only a starting point. Action — sustained, strategic, and insistent action — is what is necessary now. – Anne K. Ream, Founder, The Voices and Faces Project