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.