MLK, Jr : A Time To Break Silence – Part 1
A time comes when silence is betrayal…
[Part 1 of a 3-Part series]
Biography: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech: Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Date: April 4, 1967
Location: Riverside Church, New York City
Excerpt: “A time comes when silence is betrayal. And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”
Related Audio:
Martin Luther King, “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
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Martin Luther King, Jr.
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