Week of October 25th

Martin Luther King gave the speech "Beyond Vietnam" on April 4, 1967. Some reactions to his antiwar activism at the time (primary sources):

From the New York Times.

From Civil Rights activists.

From a university dean.

What do you notice about these responses?

Here's one way King responded:

A thought on similar ideas, from the writer James Baldwin.

“The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure. Negroes know far more about white Americans than that; it can almost be said, in fact, that they know about white Americans what parents – or, anyway, mothers, know about their children, and that they very often regard white Americans that way. . . . " - James Baldwin

*****************************************************************************************