Martin Luther King’s Demand for Justice in the World and King’s Anti-Vietnam War Speech By Heather Gray
Preface In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in jail in Birmingham because of his participation in protests against segregation. From his jail cell he wrote the lengthy and significant April 16, 1963 ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail’. King included the following statement regarding injustice. He infers that ‘injustice’ requires taking action against it: I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (King-1963) In this assertion, King wisely notes that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” which is a philosophy he adhered to throughout his civil rights career. King wrote the Birmingham letter while John F. Kennedy was the US President. Then Kennedy was assassinated eight months later on November 22, 1963 resulting in Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becoming the US President. King was, on the whole, appreciative of Johnson’s civil rights advocacy, which included three major civil rights acts from 1964 to 1968: (1) the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin; (2) the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and (3) the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which covers fair housing for minorities. The 1968 act, however, was passed after King’s assassination in 1968. King’s Stance on Injustice A few years after his 1963 Birmingham Jail Letter, King’s reference to ‘injustice’ expanded considerably in his actions and speech to include ‘international’ injustice. Regarding this, in 2017 scholar David Garrow noted: Finally, in early 1967, he (King) had had enough. One day Dr. King pushed aside a plate of food while paging through a magazine whose photographs depicted the burn wounds suffered by Vietnamese children who had been struck by napalm. The images were unforgettable, he said. “I came to the conclusion that I could no longer remain silent about an issue that was destroying the soul of our nation.” (Garrow: New York Times - 2017)
SCLC National Magazine/ King 2022 Issue
29
