More than a half-century later, MLK’s famous anti-war speech given new life
Are we more enlightened today? The late civil rights leader’s daughter joined activists, scholars, and faith leaders to ponder the question.
Fifty-five years ago this week, Martin Luther King, Jr. took to the podium at Riverside Church in New York City to condemn the United States’ war in Vietnam — and to name his government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”
King’s speech denounced the violence the conflict was inflicting on the Vietnamese people, along with the deprivation it exacerbated on America’s poor, and called for a fundamental realignment of U.S. values at home and abroad.
On Saturday, April 2, a group of scholars, activists, and faith leaders, including MLK’s daughter Dr. Bernice King, gathered at that same church to read King’s speech and to reflect on its relevance in a world once again under the shadow of war.
