Black History Book Club: 'Why We Can't Wait' by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Black History Book Club closes out its 2026 season at Tampa's Black History Museum on Monday, December 14, with a discussion of Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King Jr. The session runs from 5:30 PM to 6:45 PM, and it's free to attend.

If you've been following the club this year, you know the format: each meeting focuses on a single book, leaving plenty of room for careful reading and conversation. The 2026 season has spanned nearly a century of Black writing, from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Cornel West's Race Matters (1993) to Ladee Hubbard's The Talented Ribkins (2017). The club is presented by the Tampa Bay History Center as part of its talks series, and the whole season has centered on Black life in America as shaped by economics, culture, and political struggle, pulling together novels, memoirs, essays, and works of social thought.

This final session opens Why We Can't Wait (1964), King's firsthand account of the Birmingham Campaign. It's more than a report on one city, though; it's where he lays out his broader argument for the moral urgency of the civil rights movement. The discussion weighs nonviolent resistance against political delay and looks at the psychological toll of segregation. It's a good place to end the year, as it brings the season's themes of struggle and social thought into a single, urgent voice.

It's a free session at Tampa's Black History Museum, 1213 North Central Avenue, on Monday, December 14, from 5:30 PM to 6:45 PM.