He asked, rhetorically, “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?” And “How long will justice be crucified and truth bear it?” In response, Dr. King delivered his stirring anthem to freedom. Word spread, the number of demonstrators grew, and by the time they reached the capitol building on March 25, their numbers had swelled to at least 25,000.įrom the back of a flatbed truck parked in front of the steps to the state capitol Dr. And so for five days, over a span of 53 miles, through biting cold and frequent rain, they marched. Johnson ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to protect the marchers. And both times they were forced to turn back. They had tried to march twice before, but were met with tear gas, billy clubs, and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire. They wanted simply to be given the right to vote. Martin Luther King Jr., and they were marching for one reason. At the front of the crowd was the Reverend Dr. On Sunday, March 21st, 1965, about 8,000 people gathered at Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama and began a march to the capitol building in Montgomery.
The following essay is based on the book’s Prologue. As I am attempting to make the case for a secular, non-religious moral system grounded in science and reason, I hope this book in some small way helps support our movement to reduce dogmatism and irrationality in the world, and to increase the survival and flourishing of sentient beings everywhere. If you are of a mind to get a copy, doing so in the next few days or weeks is vital to the life of a book in terms of which titles make the bestseller lists (thereby giving them an added boost). It is longer than my previous books because I cover a lot more ground, but more importantly I think that the topics I discuss are more substantive than those in my prior work. It took me four years to research and write.
Today my book, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom, is published by Henry Holt.