Fiftieth Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Most Controversial Speech: Beyond Vietnam
Event Details:
Location
Free and open to the public.
"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government."
- Beyond Vietnam, 1967
A panel of experts at Stanford University will discuss Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 speech condemning the Vietnam War. The event on April 4th will include author and television personality Tavis Smiley, King legal advisor Clarence B. Jones, and King Institute director Clayborne Carson. The program will feature a screening of Smiley’s documentary on the “Beyond Vietnam” speech, MLK: A Call to Conscience.
The discussion commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of King’s address at New York’s Riverside Church, delivered a year to the day before his assassination. King told the audience that he “could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.” Many newspapers and other civil rights leaders denounced King for criticizing American foreign policy.
The event is free and open to the public. Director for the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, Jennifer DeVere Brody, will moderate the discussion. It will be followed by a book signing with the panelists.
For film screening of MLK: A Call to Conscience, doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
Read the full text of the “Beyond Vietnam” speech in the King Encyclopedia.
Event Sponsor:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Black Community Services Center, Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity
Contact Email:
zaitaym@stanford.edu
Contact Phone:
650-736-0711