MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Criss-Cross Style

The second in a pair of word puzzles for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is being observed this Monday, January 21.

A powerful speaker and writer, King was one of the most well-known advocates of nonviolent activism and the chief spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States. You can find a number of King’s speeches on MLKOnline.net  and some publically accessible videos and recordings at the Martin Luther King Jr. page of the Detroit Area Library Network.

The 24 words in this criss-cross puzzle are from King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Use the excerpts from King’s letter to fill in the puzzle. Need more help and don't feel like searching the letter? The word list is at the bottom of the post. 

 Across

3. Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a __________ call for defiance and hatred?

5. When I was suddenly __________ into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church.

6. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the __________ of society.

8. They have gone down the highways of the South on __________ rides for freedom.

10. Throughout Alabama all sorts of __________ methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered.

15. Actually, we who engage in __________ direct action are not the creators of tension.

17. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national __________ into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

18. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright __________.

20. Moreover, I am __________ of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.

22. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the __________ segregationist.

23. Segregation, to use the __________ of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it" relationship for an "I thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things.

24. I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need __________ neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.

Down

1. Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely __________ notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills.

2. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for __________ work.

4. There can be no __________ the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community.

7. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of __________ from the label.

9. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a __________ on all demonstrations.

11. The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be __________ about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act

12. Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" __________ to combat the disease of segregation.

13. But he will not see this without pressure from __________ of civil rights.

14. On __________ summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward.

16. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically __________?

19. Hence segregation is not only politically, __________ and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.

21. Birmingham is probably the most __________ segregated city in the United States.

Image from  the National Archives.

Word list: antidotes, catapulted, clarion, cognizant, constructive, devious, devotees, economically, elegy, emulate, gainsaying, irrational, moratorium, mores, nonviolent, prodded, rabid, rejection, satisfaction, structured, sweltering, terminology, thoroughly, tortuous