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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 2024)
January 10, 2024 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 21 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace cont’d from pg 18 it, North Vietnam and its National Liberation Front were a threat to democracy in Southeast Asia. King’s advisers plead- ed with him not to speak out and argued that the political costs would be too high. Most impor- tantly, they reminded King that there was more than enough work to do in the U.S. to end poverty and secure equal rights for Black citizens. But King ultimately broke with his advisers and President Johnson. By 1967, King followed the lead of his wife – and anti-war activist – Coret- ta Scott King and began speaking out. In March 1967, King led his first anti-war march in Chicago. At the rally, he called on peace activ- ists to organize “as effec- tively as the war hawks.” A month later, on April 4, 1967, King gave the speech at the Riverside Church in New York City Book cont’d from pg 20 with campus officials. The BSU was protesting UW’s small population of nonwhite students and faculty, along with related concerns. Today, the OMAD continues to offer African American and other minority stu- dents academic advising, cultural support, tutor- ing, leadership develop- ment and more. What does Black stu- dent activism in Wash- ington state look like today? Black Student Unions are active at numerous colleges and universi- ties in Washington, in- cluding the two schools featured in my book, the University of Wash- ington and Washington State University. Like their 1960s coun- terparts, progressive Black students today continue to push their institutions to create, maintain and expand ini- tiatives to graduate Black students, hire Black fac- ulty and fund Black stud- ies and related curricula. In recent years, Black students across the Pacif- ic Northwest have orga- nized in support of Black Lives Matter and against the killings of unarmed Black people, often us- ing social media as a tool for communication and public education. Over- all, today’s Black student politics and struggles for greater equity continue the legacy of the Black Student Unions of the 1960s. that changed the course of the last year of his life – “Beyond Vietnam − A Time to Break the Silence”. In that revolu- tionary speech, King de- scribed how he was mor- ally compelled to speak out against the war. In the days and weeks after, he would lose mass- es of supporters, Black and white alike. He lost hard-earned political al- lies, including President Johnson. King was also shunned and denounced by 168 newspapers that ques- tioned King’s failure to condemn the enemy, fueling long-standing rumors about commu- nist ties. Saving the soul of America King had no regrets. He understood the difficulty of speaking out against the war. “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war,” he said. For King, a preacher at heart, silence had become betrayal. Calling the U.S “the greatest purveyor of violence today,” King said the soul of Ameri- ca “can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.” He warned that Amer- ica had lost moral au- thority abroad and derid- ed “the deadly Western arrogance that has poi- soned the international “ if we do not condone their actions,” King said in the speech, “surely we must see that the men we supported pressed King’s advisers pleaded with him not to speak out and ar- gued that the political costs would be too high. atmosphere for so long.” King pointed to the role of the U.S. in prohibiting the realization of “a rev- olutionary government seeking self-determina- tion” in Vietnam. Most poignantly in that 1967 speech at Riverside Church, King detailed the devastating costs of the Vietnam War and described the millions of children and women who were killed by American bombs and bullets and the poor masses who were spared slaughter only to face a slow, pain- ful death by disease and starvation. Then King turned to the so-called “enemy,” the North Vietnamese. “Even them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction sim- ply dwarf their greatest acts.” Then King called for a cease-fire. The fight for justice and humanity King’s words resonate today. Unlike in King’s time, 61% of potential voters support a permanent cease-fire between Isra- el and Hamas. Anti-war protests abound across the nation and around the world. How can the U.S., as King would ask the na- tion, move forward from here? In the 1960s, King grap- pled with this very ques- tion. On the one hand, he felt a deep solidarity with the Jewish struggle against persecution, and on the other hand, he re- jected the violent occupa- tion of Palestinian lands that would run counter to the noble cause. He saw resolution through a commitment to breaking cycles of vi- olence and practicing radical peace, “a world- wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern be- yond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation.” Nearly 60 years later, the fight for King’s “radi- cal revolution of values,” where human life and dignity were the most valued, still rages. But as the life of King reminds us, speaking out for jus- tice can be costly. Yet he would also say that the cost of remaining silent is far greater. This article is repub- lished from The Conver- sation under a Creative Commons license.
