成人X站

Martin Luther King Jr. worked closely with President Lyndon Johnson during the Civil Rights movement. They鈥檇 discuss how to change minds and hearts about southern states denying black people fundamental rights.

LBJ: 鈥淚f you can find the worst condition鈥�shove through in the end.鈥�

And what they 鈥渟hoved through鈥� was the voting rights act of 1965. Johnson was calculating that more black voters would mean more support for his anti-poverty programs.

Ross: Worried about balloning government budgets? Get involved

That conversation was in 1965. But by 1967, the two would have a falling out 鈥� over Vietnam. A war which Dr. King felt was undermining the campaign for racial justice at home. So King gave a speech title “Beyond Vietnam.”

MLK in 1967: 鈥淭hen came the war in Vietnam…I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.鈥�

It was April 4, 1967 鈥� at an event at Riverside Church in Manhattan organized by a group called 鈥淐lergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam.鈥�

MLK: 鈥淲e were taking the black young men — which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.鈥�

He also embraced the idea of a Brotherhood of Man 鈥� which prompted some people to label him a communist.

MLK: 鈥淚t is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries…This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing — embracing and unconditional love for all mankind.”

The speech split his supporters.

Ross: Honest representatives get elected when voters want honesty

called it 鈥淎 tragedy” and said King鈥檚 speech had 鈥渄iminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country, and to his people.鈥�

ran an editorial titled 鈥淒r King鈥檚 Error.鈥�

Even the NAACP criticized the speech.

But King鈥檚 prediction was correct 鈥� by 1968, even as back and white soldiers fought side by side in Vietnam, Congress couldn鈥檛 bring itself to pass the Fair Housing Act 鈥� which some members of Congress feared would let black people live side by side with white people.

It was only after King鈥檚 assassination 鈥� a year to the day since that Riverside Church speech 鈥� that President Johnson would use the outpouring of grief to get the act passed 鈥� one day after King鈥檚 funeral.

MLK: 鈥淭rue compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”