Martin Buber in an outside reading

While reading “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” for my American studies class, I came across a line that had to do with Martin Buber: 

“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.”     

This excerpt is about the segregations that took place during the late 1800’s to the 1960’s. This relates to the class because, in the quote, the word relegating means to send to an inferior place, position, or condition. During that time, black men, women, and children were sent to the conditions of slavery. Segregation was a time when the people, who were sent to slavery, became people instead of its or things. This is similar to the class discussions about the transforming from it to thou when on sacred journeys.