Thursday, April 19, 2012


martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it.

PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley's new documentary, MLK: A Call to Conscience explores King's speech. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel.

By the time King made the "Beyond Vietnam" speech, Smiley tells host Neal Conan, "he had fallen off already the list of most-admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year." Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. It was the speech he labored over the most."

After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. "This was a huge, huge speech," he continues, "that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125355148
Posted by at

12 comments:

  1. Mike LohreApril 19, 2012 at 10:44 AM

    Shafie, why did King feel the US needed to get out of Vietnam? What were his main arguments against the war?

    ReplyDelete
  2. MoeApril 20, 2012 at 8:04 PM

    MLK didn't believe the Vietnam war was justified

    ReplyDelete
  3. shafieApril 21, 2012 at 10:34 AM

    The main argument for U.S to get of Vietnam war was, I think, there was a lot of American at home who were against the war, the war was expensive and most important the was going long time than expected, it is prolonging and there was no victory at sight. A lot of American took to the street protesting, a lot of campus student mobilize protesting against it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sahraApril 21, 2012 at 8:51 PM

    Really i like your topic it is a good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. sahraApril 21, 2012 at 9:29 PM

    Hello. this is ideas is okay.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mohamed OladApril 23, 2012 at 4:36 PM

    great work if you did that :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. David J.April 24, 2012 at 8:24 AM

    At the time, there were many other civil rights leaders who thought that MLK was trying to change thing too quickly. They thought that he was causing too much agitation, and that he should slow down.

    ReplyDelete
  8. HawoApril 24, 2012 at 2:07 PM

    I really like your topic, its nice one.

    ReplyDelete
  9. fartunApril 25, 2012 at 10:58 PM

    Good topic shafie nice work

    ReplyDelete
  10. iGGYApril 26, 2012 at 4:14 AM

    War can hardly be justified, it's never a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. halimoApril 26, 2012 at 9:37 AM

    martin Luther King Jr.'s take a big part Vietnam war.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fardowsa GediApril 26, 2012 at 9:41 AM

    Great speech by martin luther king Jr.,it make difference !

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)