22 April, 2009
[Two of history’s best known orations are Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I had a dream” speech and his last, the night before his 4/4/68 assassination, with its fateful:
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
But official commemorations usually jump over his 4/4/67 anti-Vietnam war speech, which commands attention now, as America’s 1st Black President sends more troops to Afghanistan. Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), the great “black power” civil rights leader, called our attention to King’s talk in the 5/91 issue of The Anti-War Activist:
“Africans gave leadership in the Vietnam anti-war movement. On the extreme was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee with its slogan ‘hell no, we won’t go.’ In the middle stood Dr. Martin Luther King. The capitalists would make his ‘I had a dream’ speech his most popular speech. But we must make his ‘why I oppose the war in Vietnam’ speech the real speech.”
Indeed, it is so “real” that it is given below, complete. Study it for yourself. Then please look at my take on its background in 1967 and its relevance in 2009 and beyond.]
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