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Commentary: Memories of Martin Luther King and two Aprils

Jan. 17, 2006

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Commentary
By Elliott Wright*

On April 4, 1967, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a
powerful speech in opposition to the Vietnam War to 3,000 people
attending a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam at New
York City's Riverside Church.

A few days later, he defended his words at a midtown Manhattan press
conference packed by news reporters including myself. I was
Protestant-Orthodox editor for Religion News Service in 1967 and 1968
and was assigned to report on Martin Luther King's opposition to Vietnam
War.

The Riverside speech was not King's first action in opposition to the
war. He had earlier taken part in a war protest march in Chicago and
given a strong anti-war speech in Los Angeles. But the thundering
condemnation of the war on that April day, exactly a year before he was
killed in Memphis, brought torrents of criticism.

We now know that then-President Lyndon Johnson, who supported civil
rights legislation, had turned against King for daring to question White
House military policy. The congressional and media "hawks" put the
preacher from Atlanta in their sights. Much of the civil rights
establishment accused King of abandoning the cause, claiming that the
Vietnam conflict and civil rights were two different things. The New
York Times took up the cry against King's views on Vietnam.

His last few years were hard times for Martin King. His decision to take
the civil rights movement to the streets of Chicago in 1966 did not
produce the outpouring of support he expected, partly because of the
covert opposition of Mayor Richard Daley. King's philosophy of
nonviolent civil disobedience was being challenged by proponents of more
militant confrontation. He was planning for a Poor People's Campaign in
Washington D.C., a plan that lacked enthusiastic backing in some parts
of the civil rights movement. The White House and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation were relentless in their efforts to discredit King.

Those difficult days are closely examined in At Canaan's Edge: America
in the King Years 1965-68, the third volume of a history of the King
years by Taylor Branch, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Branch explores
the opposition King faced, the challenges he weathered in sorting out
options, and the views of those around him.

April 3, 1968: Memphis. I have a dream: "I'm not fearing any man! Mine
eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

King was shot dead the next day while standing on the balcony of the
Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had gone to support striking garbage
workers.

On the early evening of April 4, 1968, Archbishop Iakovos, leader of the
Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America, was hosting a
reception for the then-newly appointed Roman Catholic Archbishop (later
Cardinal) Terrence Cooke of New York. The festivities were just getting
under way at the Greek Church headquarters when the news swept the room:
Martin King had been shot; perhaps he was dead. Gasps ... an update:
Yes, King was dead.

The Greek archbishop, who had marched with King at Selma, and Cardinal
Cooke led the partygoers to a small chapel where the leaders of these
church groups, so different from King's Baptist background, fell upon
their knees in prayer and lamentation. The interfaith guests did the
same. The prayers and tears lasted for hours.

Martin Luther King Jr. had not taken the easy way.

He had not backed down on his opposition to the war.

He had not given up the appeal to nonviolence.

He had not bent down to the powers and principalities in Washington or
at the New York Times.

Thirty-eight years later, the whole world knows King's course was the
right one. He reached the Promised Land; unfortunately, the national and
global march toward civil and human rights still struggles toward
Canaan's edge.

*Wright is the information officer of the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries.

News media contacts: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759; Tim Tanton,
Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470; or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org