1960's Business and the Economy | "The Black Revolution: Letters to a White Liberal"

Journal article

By: Thomas Merton

Date: December 1963

Source: Thomas Merton, "The Black Revolution: Letters to a White Liberal," Ramparts 2, no. 3, Christmas 1963, 7, 8, 10, 11, 17.

About the Author: Thomas Merton (1915–1968), born in France, had no particular religious instruction and lived a rambunctious early life, but converted to Catholicism at the age of twenty-three. He spent twenty-seven years at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, as a Trappist monk, and became an extraordinary essayist, theologian, poet, and social activist. Merton was a leading activist against the Vietnam War (1964–1975). His writings (more than 70 books) blended insightful contemporary political analysis with classical philosophical themes.

Introduction

The civil rights movement of the early 1960s raised hopes that the United States might finally come to grips...