January 14, 2025: MLK Beyond Vietnam-- A Time to Break Silence

In advance of what would have been MLK's 96th birthday, Two Westbrook and Barbara Humphrey discussed one of his lesser-known speeches, "Beyond Vietnam:  A Time to Break Silence."  Made on 4/4/1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated, Dr. King gave this passionate speech of "...firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience..."   He laid out 7 reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of his moral vision, including using funds from his promised poverty program for war, watching Negro 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, that his 1964 Nobel Prize was not a decoration but a commission to work harder for "the brotherhood of man," and to be a voice for the voiceless.  While so many have remained and continue to remain silent since 1967 regarding wars and genocides around the world, revisiting Dr. King's worlds feels like a call to us to find the courage to break silence today.

Please join us on Monday, January 20 at Your Space Collective's The People's Gathering, 422 W. 43rd Street, for delicious food; live music; an exploration of resources from grassroots organizers, nonprofits and local artists and vendors; and a community reading of Beyond Vietnam:  A Time to Break Silence.