LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL
April 16, 1963
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. 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 constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.

As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves : "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-off we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer.

You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor. will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may want to ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology 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. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious 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. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to ace the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but 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; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At fist I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle.

If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides--and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.

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 satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some---such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle---have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as "dirty nigger lovers." Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative .critics who can always find. something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of Rio shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leader era; an too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious. irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, on Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. 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 mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jai with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, ham and all over the nation, because the goal of America k freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.

It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handing the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. There will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. There will be the old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." There will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Junk Genealogy Masquerades as the Truth - Mary E. Petty's Answer to Question #1

Question #1: Without organized professionalism and its attendant standardization, how is junk genealogy to be unmasked? Or put another way, how do you separate true and accurate genealogy from junk genealogy in the non professionalized world of family history?

While there is no quick fix, there are four possible approaches to the problem.

1. The consumer can wait till his family tree has been climbed by others; and then, hope that Genealogy Research Services has professionalized so he can hire a real professional to validate or disprove all the genealogy work discovered in the past. Could be in the next life!
2. The consumer does his own genealogy after he devotes considerable time and effort to becoming a professional genealogist by adhering to the hallmarks of a real professional – college education; skill training, work experience; competency testing, verifiable credentials; compliance; membership in qualified members-only organization that requires these qualifying standards, best practices, and ethics. If the consumer is willing to become a real professional genealogist!
3. The consumer encourages the formal establishment of a profession in Genealogy Research Services to create qualified practitioners (education, training, experience, competency testing, continuing education, compliance) with members-only professional organization supporting and maintaining recognized methodology, best practices, ethics, and standards so trustworthy genealogy can be accurately discovered and documented, verified, reproduced, and certified. My Dream by 2020!
4. Practitioner initiative (actual workers who make a living doing genealogy research for hire for clients, organizes a real profession in Genealogy Research Services by 2020 to establish and verifiably maintain the qualified practitioner criteria, standards, methodology, technology, science, best practices, and ethics. My Dream by 2020!

Personally, I feel it is impossible to unmask junk genealogy in today’s non-professionalized genealogy research services marketplace. Just calling something Professional Genealogy does not make it so for either the practitioner or the products and services and outcomes. Any one can work in genealogy today, producing whatever they call genealogy, with no standardized qualifier as to the validity, quality, and status of the product or the producer. Any one can self-appoint themselves as a professional and charge money for their services, products and work, or do this for free, falsely claiming pro bono or professional stature of the advice, instruction, or facts. In such unstructured commercial activity, you can’t tell the real practitioner from the non-qualified or self-appointed worker, or whose work or efforts is true or junk genealogy. For the consumer’s, it’s a real buyer’s-beware environment.

Genealogy is so intertwined with hobbyist, amateur, and self-styled professional work, that consumers have no authoritative means of separating between the real work of authorized practitioners, and that produced by the self-designated professional or massed-produced or recopied by the hobbyist world. Without recognized professionals who have access to standardized education, training, competency testing with verifiable continuing education, compliance, standards, ethics, and best practice, there is no authoritative means to differentiate between the qualified and unqualified practitioner and their outcomes. Everyone and everything is suspect in today’s world of genealogy research services, resulting in unfettered junk genealogy. Anyone may self-designate as a genealogist, often erroneously self-applying the term professional genealogist to lead the consumer to believe that there is a profession in genealogy research services. Such self-styled workers then call their genealogy services or outcomes “professional”, be it actual research work or just talking, writing, blogging, speaking, lecturing, or teaching about genealogy. Junk Genealogy thrives in such a world of non standardization or un-professionalism. It will always be a problem till the work of Genealogy Research Services professionalizes and formally organizes as a profession. Just like true and accurate research in any real research and discovery profession like paleontology, archeology, and astronomy, professional designation in genealogy must be credible, competency-based, maintained and reproducible; verifiable and restricted by standardization to qualified practitioners only.

Genealogy is a lot like paleontology, archeology, and astronomy. They are all very technical, scientific and scholarly research-oriented fields of endeavor and interest that have very small professional occupations, affiliated business and industry work opportunities, and very large hobbyist or amateur participation. They all suffer from free junk made available to the consumer by the unqualified, as well as non professionals who compete with the real professional practitioners for the consumer dollar by doing research and writing, speaking, teaching, and producing materials and results that are marketed to the consumer as true and valid.

Paleontology, archeology, and astronomy have existing professions that use the well-established pattern of professionalism to control who is designated by their professional organizations as a real paleontologist, archeologist, and astronomer. So pros can trust other pros, for trustworthy, verifiable and reproducible results, practitioners have earned the profession-mandated college education and skill training as the entry-level hallmark designators for a professional or career worker in their field. This achievement of the required content-specific college degrees and on the job training at the graduate level separates the hobbyist from the qualified and allows the degreed person to be designated as a professional in their respective occupation.

This enables the professionals to know who is professionally qualified, and by right, use the professional designation as paleontologist, archeologist, and astronomer. There is no self-appointment as a professional. This does not prevent someone from working in these fields, but it does remove the possibility of confusing professional work from that done by the unqualified. In other words, professionals know who is producing the materials and can easily separate the credibility and competency of the work and the provider. While this does not stop the active hobby world from digging for dinosaurs, or historical artifacts, or searching for new planets and then holding conferences, publishing consumer magazines and blogging their findings, it sets trustworthy criteria for both the consumer and professionals to use to unmask the junk in their fields. Paleontology, archeology, and astronomy differ from genealogy because of such professionalization and the resultant professionalism of the practitioners.

This professionalization and ensuing professionalism are in the best interests of the consumer, the practitioner, the profession, the affiliated partners in technology, science, goods, and services, and the public and private domain family trees. My dream is the establishment of a real profession in genealogy research services by 2020 through the actions of career practitioners and the efforts of well-meaning consumers. Here we will find the true, reliable, and trustworthy means and tools to unmask junk genealogy and to climb the family tree professionally, and accurately identify individuals an link them to their real ancestors, descendants, and relatives, and their place in history.

Submitted by Mary E. Petty, BA (History), BA (Genealogy)
Ancestors are the People of History.● Do you know who yours are? ● Let the Professionals at HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY find your ancestry! ●1-800-570-4049 ● www.heirlines.com ● PO Box 893 ● Salt Lake City, UT 84110
© 2009, Heirlines Family History & Genealogy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Junk Genealogy Masquerades As The Truth

Things are seldom what they seem -Skim milk masquerades as cream.
Quotation by William S Gilbert (1836 – 1911)

Most genealogy enthusiasts, patrons, customers, vendors, and practitioners want the truth in data, products, and services. Whether these genealogy consumers are one of the few - a pre-qualified, practitioner-designated “professional genealogist” (earned status and experienced as a “pro”, or “expert”) or self-proclaimed as such; whether they are a commercial provider/vendor, a hobbyist, or a potential client; whether they do genealogy research, or write, blog, or teach about genealogy; whether they produce, promote, market, or distribute genealogy; or whether they use, buy, or sell genealogy data, products and services, the majority interested in genealogy today want to know who and what is real, true, and safe, and to be able to easily make the best and correct choices. With the coming of the Internet and the ensuing development of free computer and E-commerce genealogy and family history web-based businesses, databases, products, services, technologies, resources, and activities found on and offline, achieving these desires have become increasingly challenging in the field of Genealogy.

Why?

One of biggest problems facing family history consumers is junk genealogy masquerading as the truth. This is a direct consequence of the non-professionalization of the so-called profession of Professional Genealogy.
The required professional authority, criteria, and competency of authorized professional genealogists, needed to create the quality, integrity, and service of professional work and outcomes in business, commerce, and pro bono genealogy that is now so readily accessed on and off the Internet, must be set and maintained institutionally, and supported by qualified practitioner-designated “professional genealogists”. This has not happened yet in Professional Genealogy.

Only a very few practitioners have been willing to support the formation of such a profession in Professional Genealogy with standardized standards, methodology, ethics, best practices, and admission policies; and fewer still, to earn the available (emerging, but still non-standardized and not for pre-qualified professionals only) professional genealogy education, training, experience, competency, credentials, membership, and compliance that warrant the qualified-designation as “professional genealogist”. Without organized professionalism and its attendant standardization, how is junk genealogy to be unmasked? how can the consumer accurately determine genealogy and family history? and how does a consumer choose a qualified professional genealogy practitioner or reputable genealogy research services business, or provider of genealogy databases, products, and related services?

How?

As Vice President of HEIRLINES Family History & Genealogy, Inc., I have asked myself these same three questions. After briefly introducing Heirlines and its professional genealogy owners, over the next couple of blogs I will specifically address each of these questions and share our solutions with you, gained from our nearly 40 years experience in professional genealogy research services, providing verifiable forensic genealogy, in-depth genealogy and family history research, analysis, and reporting, databases, and genealogical information for our clients and the private and public domain family trees. If you have additional questions, please go to our website www.Heirlines.com and contact us using the Free Consultation Form. We will be happy to talk to you in greater detail about professional genealogy.

HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY, INC.
Ancestors are the People of History. Do you know who yours are?
Let the Professionals at HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY find your ancestry!
1-800-570-4049 ▪ www.heirlines.com ▪ PO Box 893 ▪ Salt Lake City, UT 84110

HEIRLINES Family History & Genealogy, Inc. is a full-service Professional Genealogy Research Services firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is a BBB Accredited Business with Utah incorporation and Sandy City Business License compliance. HEIRLINES provides Certified Family Trees ™, Forensic Genealogy, Custom In-depth Research, Analysis, Reporting verifiable American and International Ancestry, LDS, Lineage Society, Ethnic and Minority Status, Pro – Pro, DNA Surname and Mitochondrial Studies, Family Health History, Corporate History, Consultation and other Professional Genealogy Research Services through for-hire contracted work. HEIRLINES primary, locally-accessed, professional genealogy repository is the #1 premier, world- renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Additional resources, sources, and databases are accessed through on-line corporate Internet accounts, qualified sub-contractors, and in-person onsite research at repositories worldwide.

A private family-owned corporation, HEIRLINES is led by President and Principal Genealogist, James W. Petty, AG®, CGSM. He is a member in good standing with the National Association of Professional Genealogists and local APG Salt Lake City, Utah chapter, since its first year, 1979. A commercial genealogy practitioner, Mr. Petty has had a full-time career “climbing the family tree professionally, since 1969”. As a qualified professional genealogist, James W. Petty, AG®, CGSM has set the professional standard for our Professional Genealogy Research Services company by earning his designation as “professional genealogist”. He has adhering to the most popular professional career path even though it has not been formally instituted or standardized for the Profession as a whole in genealogy today. As of the beginning of the 21st century it is available with quasi- professional standards, ethics, methodology, best practices, and admission policies including: Formal Education in Professional Genealogy Research; Formal Training in Professional Genealogy Research; Formal Experience in Professional Genealogy Research; Competency Testing and Maintained; Continuing Education, Business Compliance, Member of APG (as of 2009, this is not a profession-qualified members-only organization).

James W. Petty, AG, CG Professional Genealogy Career Path: 1969 - Present

• Full-time Career Professional Genealogist in occupation and emerging profession of Professional Genealogy Research Services: Education, Training, Experience, Credentials, Membership (1969-Present).
• Full-Time Career Professional Genealogy Research Career Experience - DBA as James W. Petty and James W. Petty, AG (1969-1979) ; then President and Owner HEIRLINES Family History & Genealogy, Inc. and DBA (1979 – present); E-Commerce website www.Heirlines.com (1998- present).
• Formal Education and Training in Genealogy Research - 1969 – 1973
• Graduate: BYU - B.A. History 1972, B. S. Genealogy 1973.
• Formal Experience in Professional Genealogy Employment: GSU/LDSGD/FHL: Field Operations, Reference Librarian, Researcher (1973-1980).
• Competency Tested Credentials Earned and Dates Maintained:
FHL/ICAPGen: AG®, Accredited Genealogist in 4 areas of specialty. (1971- Present);
BCG: CGSM , Certified Genealogist. (2005-present);
Previous Certifications: CALS, Certified American Lineage Specialist. (1983- 1988); CGRS, Certified Genealogical Records Specialist. (2000- 2005).
• Created Certified Family Trees ™, Historical Event Genealogy™, and the Jamestowne & Colonial Virginia Genealogy & DNA Project TM.
• Recipient of BCG Education Fund 2005 Donald Mosher Award.
• Instructor: Heritage Genealogy College; Salt Lake Community College, National, State and Local Genealogy Society Conferences.
• Internship Mentor: BYU, HGC, SLCC, Salt Lake Institute genealogy research students.
• Professional Genealogist, Forensic Genealogist, Researcher, Author, Columnist, Lecturer, Consultant, Expert Witness.

The ICAPGenSM service mark and the Accredited Genealogist® and the AG® certification marks are the sole property of the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists. All Rights Reserved.
CG and Certified Genealogist are Service Marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license after periodic evaluations by the Board.

Mary E. Petty, B.A. History BYU 1972, B.A. Genealogy HGC 2008, serves as Vice President of Heirlines. She has more than thirty- seven years’ experience in commercial genealogy research services, development, and project management: responsible for accounting, marketing, business development, and client/customer relations in consumer genealogical and historical research. Working along side James W. Petty, AG®, CGSM, Mrs. Petty has provided professional genealogy services including in-depth family tree research, consultation, special projects, and DNA genetic genealogy for individuals, family organizations, ethnic minorities, businesses, and law firms world-wide since 1972. Both she and Mr. Petty have served on the Utah Department of Health’s Family Health History Task Force and she is a member in good standing with National and the local Salt Lake City, Utah Chapter of APG. A published professional genealogy author, editor and family history branch librarian, Mary has continually worked to help clients, consumers, and amateur and professional genealogists have a better understanding of the professional genealogy industry, its potential, professionalism and professionalization. Her dream is to have a full-fledged profession in genealogy with standardized standards, ethics, methodology, best practices, and admission policies by 2020.

Submitted by Mary E. Petty, BA (History), BA (Genealogy)
●Ancestors are the People of History.● Do you know who yours are?
● Let the Professionals at HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY find your ancestry!
●1-800-570-4049 ● www.heirlines.com ● PO Box 893 ● Salt Lake City, UT 84110

© 2009, Heirlines Family History & Genealogy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Professional Genealogy Tip: Use long-form legal birth certificate record for maximum genealogical, historical and family history information, not merely "certification" or short-form abstract copy of live birth legal record. Compare Obama's short-form certification of live birth with 50 states long-form certificate of live birth. What a big difference in what information is provided on a "real" birth certificate!

Recently I did professional genealogy research on Hawaiian ancestry using several long-form legal birth records called “certificate of live birth” for the years 1949 (a legal copy produced in 1950) and 1971 (a legal copy produced in 1985), as well as the short-form record called “certification of live birth” for 1961 (a legal copy produced in 2008). Anyone familiar with the value of birth records in genealogical research, knows there is considerable difference in available information between what is included on the legal live birth long-form (the commonly called “real” birth certificate) and legal short-form (which is an abstract of the long form). Information accuracy, access, and availability are the life blood of professional genealogy research, and less is not better! In the course of this research I was told that only the short-form birth records are available for purchase and use by today’s researchers. I heard this change took place in 2001 when Hawaii went paperless. Is this really true? What is the Hawaiian legal code authorizing this? Has Hawaiian genealogical research using copies of original long-form birth records been stopped and now limited to the minimal information that is found on the short-form? If so, it is a professional genealogist nightmare and for those who are not professionals, even more of a loss because most do not have the education, training and experience to find alternative sources of information!

I wonder: What happened to the long-form certificates that were collected, stored and microfilmed in the past? I just can’t imagine that the genealogists, family historians, and professional researchers working with Hawaiian ancestry have allowed this to happen. Are there people in Hawaii who are working to reverse this limited records access?

I wonder: What is public access today for Hawaiian birth records? What kind of birth record is available in 2009 in Hawaii for genealogical research? Are there different categories in Hawaii of certification or certificates available for legal birth records such as employment and citizen verification, identity verification, passport use, prima facie evidence in a court of law, school admission, driver’s license application, social security application, and genealogical for the genealogical researcher of Hawaiian birth records? What Hawaiian legal codes cover all of these different categories and uses of Hawaiian legal birth records?

I wonder: Is this the wave of the future for the other 49 states – inhibiting research and discovery by not legally allowing citizens to access public records? I know Utah still offers long-form and short-form birth records access, even though their records have been digitized since 1999. The long-form costs $21 while the short-form costs $18. Makes you wonder what the rest of the states are going to do? Do you know anything about this issue? Please contact me via my website www.heirlines.com so we can work together for the future accessibility of such important genealogical records as long-form birth records.

Submitted by Mary E. Petty, BA (History), BA (Genealogy)

Ancestors are the People of History. Do you know who yours are? Let the Professionals at HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY find your ancestry! 1-800-570-4049 www.heirlines.com PO Box 893 Salt Lake City, UT 84110

© 2009, Heirlines Family History & Genealogy, Inc. All rights reserved.

There is a crisis of truth in genealogy because there are no industry-wide comprehensive standards. Such standardization is a direct result of the formal institution of an organized profession. While there is rampant use of the terms Professional Genealogy and Professional Genealogist by the qualified practitioner, and the self-styled pro, and the amateur, there is no such organized profession in genealogy today. This lack of established and protected standards affects the accuracy, credibility and trustworthiness of all producers of family trees in the private and public domain; genealogical research findings, results and publications; Internet genealogy and family history websites, databases, postings, blogs, products, and services; qualifications for professional genealogist designation and formal educational programs, credentials, certifications, and accreditations. It has created the situation today of the blurred lines of distinction and separation between what and who is real, trustworthy, and true and what and who is not. Today’s Professional Genealogy is both a hobby and a commercial activity and Professional Genealogists can be qualified practitioners or self – styled pros and self-designated experts as well as hobbyists who do not take clients but want their genealogy labeled “professional”. Consumers need to know and understand all of this in order to be fully informed and able to make the best choices for their genealogy and family history needs.

Without profession-mandated and enforceable standards to qualify, establish, and certify practitioners, methodologies, best practices, ethics, resources and sources of information used in genealogy to research and produce the family tree and genealogical and historical products and services, genealogy truth is rootless. With the absence of such standards, anyone may claim anything as true and can market their work as professional, thereby misleading the consumer and creating over and over again the untrue facts that make up much of the world of genealogy. All are left with an “anything goes”, “buyers-beware” marketplace and environment in family history.

And the consumer has the right to know this, whether they be a hobbyist climbing their own family tree or a client seeking to hire a qualified genealogist to provide accurate genealogical research services; a genealogical society needing competent professionals to lecture, instruct or write about genealogy for their membership or a government agency requiring minority status authentication or locating fallen heroes next of kin; a doctor doing pharmacological or medical research using family health history or an attorney or academic in need of forensic genealogy and expert witness testimony; or a professional genealogist requiring authentic information or qualified pro to pro sub-contractor work.
Until a such profession is organized in genealogy and such standardization takes place to separate the qualified from the self-designated or hobbyist, consumers must do more thorough personal due diligence in choosing what information they will use in pursuit of their family tree, and in determining which practitioner is really qualified to supply them with the truth.

Consumers must be aware:

1. Recognize that Genealogy is both a hobby and a commercial activity, and has no organized profession. This blurs the line separating the real commercial practitioner and qualified professional genealogist from the amateur and the self-styled “pro” or so called “expert”. Anyone can call themselves a professional genealogist and claim professional status. The consumer must be the credentialing committee and do his own sifting for accurate information and qualifying their practitioner. To get what you want, to get what you pay for, to get the truth in genealogy today, consumers must learn the differences and separate the real professional and real commercial practitioners, products, and services from the amateur world of genealogy. And encourage the industry to organize and standardize a profession so the bar can be raised and standards set and maintained. This is in the best interests of the consumer, the practitioner, the industry, the profession, and the public and private domain family tree.
2. Look for a full-time career professional genealogist with credentials when you need professional research help and advice. Real professionals follow the professional career track: education, training, full-time experience, membership association, competency certification and accreditation, business license and membership. A smart consumer looks for a qualified professional genealogist who has a degree in genealogy, training in genealogy, full-time career work experience in genealogy, competency certification and accreditation, business license and compliance, and is a member in good-standing with APG.
3. Remember that the Internet is just a resource and must be carefully evaluated and sourced for accuracy. A pretty website does not make a professional nor represent truth. Something found on the Internet, does not make it true or false nor does it make the producer a professional or not. The consumer must determine the validity and trustworthiness for himself of what and who he finds on the Internet by using his personal standards of professionalism and business excellence. Or hire a qualified person to do it for them.
4. Anyone may self-designate as a professional genealogist. And charge money for it. With the absence of profession-mandated standards, anyone may claim anything as true and may market their work as professional, thereby misinforming the consumer and all who ever access their work. Traditionally a professional genealogist was someone who did research for hire. It is popular today in genealogy to claim professional status and to not do research for hire. Many such self-styled experts prefer to write about genealogy or have a blog, own a website related to genealogy, or lecture or instruct others about genealogy. Many such pros do this kind of genealogy as a side job or for their love of being involved in the genealogy world. Wise consumers will seek out career professional genealogists who have full-time experience in genealogy work when competent qualified research is needed.
5. Anyone is eligible to join the professional genealogy membership organizations that currently exist in professional genealogy by just paying their dues and agreeing to an ethics and membership standards statement. While there are no profession-prepared members-only organizations, these organizations often have arbitration committees that can help out when consumers or professional genealogists have issues. One such prominent organization is the Association of Professional Genealogists (www.apgen.org). It is open to all who pay their money and agree to adhere to the ethics and standards of the association. No professional pre-qualification is necessary. The prudent consumer should always choose a qualified practitioner who is in good standing with APG.
6. Currently there is no profession-prepared or education-based competency credential for the pre-qualified professional or career professional genealogy researcher. The same competency- tested credentials in genealogy research are available to hobbyists, self-styled experts and pros, and professionally designated practitioners alike, who apply and earn such credentials, whether or not they intend to do family history research for hire or commercial genealogy. Two competency–testing organizations exist in the world of genealogy today, The Board for Certification of Genealogists (www.bcgcertification.org) and The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (www.icapgen.org). These certification and accreditation bodies are open to all who wish to apply and then qualify as per their standards, and agree to abide by the ethics of said credentialing boards. No professional pre-qualification is necessary. These organizations also have arbitration committees for disputes and issues. This is a real plus for the consumer and practitioner.
7. For truth to grow and flourish in the world of genealogy, standardization must develop, bringing with it professionalization of the industry and competency, compliance, and certification. Look for a Profession in Professional Genealogy Research Services by 2020. In the meantime, become better informed about what constitutes truth and professionalism in genealogy so you can make the best choices for your unique family tree.

Submitted by Mary E. Petty, BA (History), BA (Genealogy)

Ancestors are the People of History. Do you know who yours are? Let the Professionals at HEIRLINES FAMILY HISTORY & GENEALOGY find your ancestry! 1-800-570-4049 www.heirlines.com PO Box 893 Salt Lake City, UT 84110

© 2009, Heirlines Family History & Genealogy, Inc. All rights reserved.