Beyond Vietnam
Martin Luther King Jr.’s charismatic “I Have a Dream” speech is emblazoned in our historical memories. But another address to a much smaller audience on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York is no less significant. There King demonstrated his deep understanding of how the system works. He moved beyond a simple race analysis to include class and foreign policy issues. He forcefully denounced the war in Vietnam. He called the U.S. “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and he deplored the “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism.” Exactly one year later King was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone in solidarity with striking sanitation workers.
Recorded at Riverside Church
Speaker
Martin Luther King
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize winner, is one of the 20th century’s most enduring figures. He advocated and practiced civil disobedience and non-violence. He said, “Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics.” He rose to national prominence during the epic Montgomery bus boycott and then went on to spearhead a movement which ended juridical apartheid in the U.S. He was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
From a listener in Colorado –
Thank you AR for playing that incredibly moving speech of MLK – Beyond Vietnam.
Danny Hosey –
I was very moved by Mr. King’s first book of sermons, and wanted more! I’m again stirred by this speech of King.
Ruth Kirschner –
Thank you for Dr. King’s Vietnam speech yesterday. Sat in my car listening to it
again after years since I heard it last. Could not have been more current.
Elizabeth Sheppard –
This was his best speech .. I tuned into my car radio in early 2003 and thought who is that warning against invading Iraq .. he sounds like Martin Luther King, Jr. Then I realized, it WAS him! It was. a rebroadcast of his April 4, 1967, Riverside Church speech. It gave me chills. Sadly we had not learned anything, and we still haven’t. We have been involved in over 25 years of endless, undeclared war. How many more martyrs for peace will it take for us to learn?
Leslie Clement –
The way IS clear – the implementation is nearly (but not quite) impossible. The gentle, reasoned and simple method of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s speech is compelling and quakes me to the core. In this speech he covers the history, the motivation and the potential outcome of our involvement (which proved amazingly accurate). Why have we NOT learned from our destructive, greedy, life denying history of allowing the growth and proliferation of the military-industrial complex? Just listening to this speech again makes me think that we truly have become a stupid people – without any impulse to push back. Without any power to stop the obvious crimes being done by our own government. We have become weak and wimpy. The Occupy Movement was as close as we have come recently – but it was ignored by government and the bought out Media.
Danny Hosey –
I was very moved by Mr. King’s first book of sermons, and wanted more! I’m again stirred by this speech of King.