Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrestled for some time with the question of war, and in particular, the Vietnam War.
Aware that publicly criticizing the war in Vietnam would jeopardize his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson -- who had staked his political clout on securing passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and whose speech in support of the bill's passage electrified Congress and the nation -- King made little mention of the war throughout 1965.
But things began to change in 1966, and by the end of that year Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, had joined publicly with Dr. Benjamin Spock in speaking out directly against the war in Vietnam.
Dr. King finally spoke out in April 1967 at a mass meeting at Riverside Church in New York City, where he articulated a seven-point program, implicitly urging Johnson to end the war. He ended that speech this way --
Aware that publicly criticizing the war in Vietnam would jeopardize his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson -- who had staked his political clout on securing passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and whose speech in support of the bill's passage electrified Congress and the nation -- King made little mention of the war throughout 1965.
But things began to change in 1966, and by the end of that year Dr. King's wife, Coretta Scott King, had joined publicly with Dr. Benjamin Spock in speaking out directly against the war in Vietnam.
Dr. King finally spoke out in April 1967 at a mass meeting at Riverside Church in New York City, where he articulated a seven-point program, implicitly urging Johnson to end the war. He ended that speech this way --
As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.
In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet 'tis truth alone is strong
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
King's stand -- which he stated was a personal one, and not as leader of the SCLC -- led not only to a rupture of relations with President Lyndon Johnson (see Newark activist Oliver Lofton's reminiscence here), but to a rancorous division within the ranks of civil rights organizations.
Nevertheless, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the remainder of his life and ministry linking his civil rights and peace activities and focusing on what he saw as the three main issues facing the nation: racism, poverty and the Vietnam war.
Though great strides have been made against racism, much remains to be done.
Poverty is still with us, and today even the middle class feels on the edge of the precipice.
The Vietnam War is over.
But not war itself.
Which makes me wonder what Dr. King would have to say were he with us today.
Nevertheless, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the remainder of his life and ministry linking his civil rights and peace activities and focusing on what he saw as the three main issues facing the nation: racism, poverty and the Vietnam war.
Though great strides have been made against racism, much remains to be done.
Poverty is still with us, and today even the middle class feels on the edge of the precipice.
The Vietnam War is over.
But not war itself.
Which makes me wonder what Dr. King would have to say were he with us today.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" -- With an MP3 file of the speech.
- King Encyclopedia: "Martin Luther King and the Vietnam War"
- Lyndon B. Johnson: "Speech to a Joint Session of Congress urging passage of the Voting Rights bill" -- Full text.
- Star-Ledger: "In final days, King left imprint on Jersey" -- Oliver Lofton's reminiscence.
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