Acting on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Full Legacy; All Roads Lead to June 18, Washington, DC!
On and around April 4, groups around the country honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s full legacy by organizing public participatory readings of his seminar speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” delivered on April 4, 1967, at the Riverside Church in New York, exactly one year before his tragic assassination. In the speech, Dr. King declared: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” He went on to name the United States Government as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world and to preach that nonviolent direct action is our greatest hope and best tool to bring about the changes we seek.
United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ) has for a number of years made available an annually updated “tool kit” to help groups organize public readings in their communities. This year, for the first time, we provided a Spanish language version of the text, divided into 16 sections, along with an updated introduction which addresses the current war in Ukraine.
This year’s public readings of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” were part of the Poor People’s Campaign’s mobilization toward the June 18, 2022, Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.
UFPJ is proud to be a national mobilizing partner in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. On April 3, UFPJ member groups did a virtual participatory reading and discussed plans for June 18. Click here to watch the recording, with a special greeting to UFPJ from Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.
The California Poor People’s Campaign planned, coordinated, and implemented more than 25 in-person and virtual public participatory readings throughout California, in Oakland, Santa Barbara, Dublin, Nevada City, Oceanside, Los Angeles, Santa Maria, Sacramento, Cypress, San Diego, San Francisco, Chico, Berkeley, San Jose, Claremont, High Desert and Beverly Hills, resulting in some excellent local media coverage. Click here for an excellent story about the Oakland and Sacramento readings.
One of the public readings was in Spanish and two featured hybrid versions in English, Spanish, and ASL. The readings featured Poor People’s Campaign members and supporters, impacted community members, college students, mothers, fathers, grandparents, educators, artists, poets, writers, and local community activists.
Two of the participants in the Santa Maria reading summed up the feelings of readers around the state: “What a great undertaking this was to bring so much diversity together,” and “It was a powerful and transforming experience of community togetherness.”
Other readings (that we know of) took place in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. We’re sure there were many more. Please let us know if your group organized a reading!
When Dr. King gave this speech, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The country was in turmoil as peace activists resisted the draft, and anti-war and civil rights protesters took to the streets. King’s speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. And it was controversial in some parts of the civil rights movement.
In his powerful speech Dr, King provided both a diagnosis and a cure that remains fully relevant today. “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism, into one “moral fusion” campaign.
All Roads Lead to Washington, DC. June 18, 2022
The Poor People’s Campaign has launched a national Mobilization Tour leading to June 18, 2022 Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls, a generationally transformative and disruptive gathering of poor and low wealth people, state leaders, faith communities, moral allies, unions and partnering organizations.
We think that June 18, 2022, offers an important opportunity for the peace movement to regroup in this broader context – and we urge everyone to get involved! In these incredibly dangerous and challenging times, the Poor People’s Campaign is building power for an agenda that lifts all people. When you lift from the bottom, everybody rises!
Please Join Poor People’s Campaign Co-chair Rev. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back, Poor People’s Campaign Director of Partnerships, on Wed. May 4 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET for a UFPJ briefing, to be inspired and learn about “moral fusion” organizing and how you can participate in June 18. Register here!
Here are some additional useful links:
June 18 overview video (4 minutes): RSVP NOW: Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington & To the Polls – YouTube
RSVP for June 18 (for individuals): Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls in 2022 – Poor People’s Campaign (poorpeoplescampaign.org)
For Organizations: Become a Mobilizing Partner for June 18, 2022 – Poor People’s Campaign (poorpeoplescampaign.org)
Get on the Bus to DC: Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls Rally – Bus to National Mall in Washington, DC
June 18 Organizer’s Guide: Organizer’s Guide 3 (poorpeoplescampaign.org)
