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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2020)
M artin L uther K ing J r . Page 16 2020 special edition January 15, 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his most famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. King Defined by Rousing Speeches, Letters The Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee, Senior Servant Invites you to join us for The 14th Annual Drum Major Ecumenical Services Theme: “Now is Still the Time!” “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick-sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood [sisterhood].” “Salute to Greatness Scholarship Benefit & Awards Luncheon” Saturday, January 18th 2020, 12:00 Noon ~ 2:00 PM at Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church (Dr. & Mrs. O.B. Williams Fellowship Hall) 3138 N Vancouver Avenue, Portland, OR 97227 Keynote Speaker: Ms. Rukaiyah Adams “Empower the Dream Annual Inter-Faith Service” Sunday, January 19th 2020, 2:00 PM at Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church 3138 North Vancouver Avenue, Portland,OR 97227 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Miles Davis, Linfield College For further information visit our website at www.vafbcpdx.org, or call (503) 282-9496 C onTinued From P age 14 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 de- layed is justice denied.” Although some of King’s lan- guage, like the use of “Negro” are now dated, and some justice and equality issues for black Ameri- cans have changed for the better, the racial divide in America is still stark. His words still carry a clear ring of truth today, and per- haps as never before. Other speeches King gave may have been less well-known, but just as controversial and moving, like his “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence” speech on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City. Although many of his advi- sors begged him not to give this speech about his opposition to the war in Vietnam, and President Lyndon Johnson stopped speak- ing to him afterward, King’s words echo today as the current escalation of conflict with Iran unfolds in the headlines. “We are taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Ne- gro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools.” On March 25, 1965 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, he delivered the speech “Our God is Marching On!” marking a triumphant end of the first phase of a modern civil rights movement and a successful fight for voting rights while showing his determination to continue the civil rights movement for other advancements of full equality. “They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world today knows that we are here and that we are stand- ing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, ‘We ain’t going to let nobody turn us around.’ “I come to say to you this af- ternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, be- cause ‘no lie can live forever.’ ... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” On July 4, 1965 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King delivered the sermon “The Amer- ican Dream – A Nightmare?” C onTinued on P age 26