Martin Luther King speaks out against Vietnam and about the War on Poverty. He combined his civil-rights campaigns with a strong stand against the Vietnam War.
King's War on Poverty
Martin Luther King, Jr. was disappointed that the progress of civil rights in the South had not been matched by improvements in the lives of Northern Blacks. In response to the riots in poverty-stricken Black urban neighborhoods in 1965, he was determined to focus the nation's attention on the living conditions of blacks in northern cities. In 1966 King established a headquarters in a Chicago, Illinois slum apartment. From this base he organized protests against the city's discrimination in housing and employment.
King Against Vietnam
King combined his civil-rights campaigns with a strong stand against the Vietnam War. He believed that the money and effort spent on war could be used to combat poverty and discrimination. He felt that he would be a hypocrite if he protested racial violence without also condemning the violence of war.
Militant Black leaders began to attack his appeals for nonviolence. They accused King of being influenced too much by whites. Government officials criticized his stand on Vietnam. Some black leaders felt that King's statements against war diverted public attention from civil rights.
King Advocates that Poverty Breeds Violence
In 1968, King inspired and planned the Poor People's Campaign. It was to be a march on Washington, D.C., to show the relationship between poverty and urban violence. It was the last march he would plan. Nor would he take part in the march.
King Free and Equal at Last
On April 4, 1968, Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. He was buried in Atlanta, Georgia. His monument was inscribed with the final words of his famous "I Have a Dream" address.
In 1977 King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his battle against prejudice. In 1986, the United States Congress established Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday in King's honor to be observed on the third Monday in January.
Previous: King the Peaceful: From Gandhi to the Birmingham Jail.
Sources:
Boyle, David. African Americans: Coming to America. The Ivy Press Ltd., The Old Candlemakers, Lewes, East Sussex, 2002.
Comptons, The Complete Reference Collection. CD Rom, 1997, The Learning Company, Inc.
Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. Random House, New York, 1976.
Wallechinsky, David. Irving Wallace. The People's Almanac. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York, 1975.
