00:00:12.940 - 00:01:13.420

were sent out to do something we have to try to build that is a little will keep working. It'll be something that falls I guess. I don't know. He's sitting down. Yeah. One time. Yeah, trying to Mhm. Before

00:01:13.420 - 00:01:33.820

I entered mike, before I introduce today's distinguished guests have been asked to make two very brief announcements. First of all, the faculty peace committee is holding a conference this friday and saturday on the social responsibility of the intellectual All meetings will be held in Wheeler auditorium

00:01:33.900 - 00:01:48.700

beginning on Friday evening at eight PM as the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Prize, winning it at the age of 35 at the present time. In addition to his civil rights activities, has been 11 of the leading critics of President johnson's war policy. It

00:01:48.710 - 00:02:30.450

is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the reverend dr martin Luther King Jr It was announced after the catholic, but thank you very kindly for your heart warming. Applause Someone has said that when an audience applauds you

00:02:30.460 - 00:02:53.920

before you speak, that represents faith, When they applaud in the middle of your speech that represents hope and when they applaud at the end, that represents love. So you have demonstrated great faith today and I certainly want to appreciate now you're very heartwarming. Applause I need

00:02:53.920 - 00:03:25.140

not pause to say how very delighted I am to have the privilege of coming to this great institution of learning and the privilege of discussing with you some of the vital issues of our day, no one can overlooked the fact that the university of California is

00:03:25.140 - 00:03:51.790

one of the truly great universities of our world. I think one of the great needs in our world today and certainly in our nation is for the revolution of values And I for one appreciate the fact. Now you here at Berkeley have constantly reminded all of

00:03:51.790 - 00:04:18.650

us and our whole nation that we must review our values. And I would also like to express my deep personal appreciation to you as a civil rights leader. Father support that you as a university and a concerned student body have given to the civil rights struggle

00:04:20.440 - 00:04:53.940

as we can be. No gain saying of the fact that America has brought the nation and the world to an awe inspiring threshold of the future. We have built machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. We have built gigantic

00:04:53.940 - 00:05:27.100

buildings to kiss the sky. Mm hmm. And gargantuan bridges to span the sea through our spaceships. We have carved the highways through the stratosphere throughout our planes. We've dwarfed distance and place, time and chains and through our submarines. We have penetrated oceanic depths. This is a

00:05:27.100 - 00:06:01.030

dazzling picture of our nation, scientific and technological progress. But when we look to the other side, something basic is missing. Our nation suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. Yes, we've learned to fly

00:06:01.030 - 00:06:29.490

the air like birds. We've learned to swim the seas like fish. And yet we have not learned the simple odds of walking the earth as brothers and sisters, Henry, David Thoreau talked ones about improving the means to an unimproved end. And so often we have allowed

00:06:29.500 - 00:07:04.440

the means by which we live. Talk about this afternoon evils that must be dealt with and problems that must be solved if we are to go on positively and creatively in the days ahead, racial injustice is still the black man's burden and America's shame. This problem

00:07:04.450 - 00:07:34.320

exists today because many americans would like to have a nation which is a democracy for white americans, but simultaneously a dictatorship over black americans. This is one of the great problems that we find today. Now in the struggle to get rid of racial injustice, there has

00:07:34.320 - 00:08:02.150

been some progress and I would not want to overlook this for an assault after assault. The movement has profoundly shaken the entire edifice of legal segregation and I need not go into the movements from the Montgomery bus boycott Right on up through the Selma movement of

00:08:02.360 - 00:08:31.410

1965 movements which literally subpoenaed the conscience of a large segment of the nation to appear before the judgment seat of morality on the whole question of civil rights. But in spite of this, we must recognize that the plant of freedom has grown only above and not

00:08:31.420 - 00:09:05.930

yet a flower. We must see that the struggle is much more difficult now. Well now, 12 years, the civil rights struggle dealt with the system of legal segregation and the syndrome of deprivation and exploitation surrounding this system. Many things were done during those years that we

00:09:05.930 - 00:09:31.170

will remember as long as the chords of memory shall lengthen. But what we must see today is that with Selma and the voting rights act, one Phase of Development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. Now a new phase has opened and this new

00:09:31.170 - 00:10:04.040

phase is a struggle for genuine equality in the phase that has now passed. The achievements were obtained that bargain rapes. It didn't cost the nation anything to integrate lunch counters, no expenses were involved, no taxes were involved. It didn't cost the nation anything to integrate libraries,

00:10:04.040 - 00:10:26.320

motels and hotels. It didn't cost the nation anything to guarantee the right to vote. Now we are dealing with issues that will cost the nation something in terms of billions of dollars. And the other thing that we must see is that we are now dealing with

00:10:26.330 - 00:11:05.590

issues that will demand a radical redistribution of economic and political power. The allies who went with us in the first phase ongoing. In this phase, many other people, it meant that America was willing to undergird its white peasants from europe with an economic floor while refusing

00:11:05.590 - 00:11:28.120

to undergird, it's black peasants who were brought here in chains from africa with the same kind of economic floor. Therefore emancipation for the negro was freedom to hunger. It was freedom to the winds and rains of heaven. It was freedom without bread to eat without land

00:11:28.120 - 00:11:51.830

to cultivate. It was freedom and famine at the same time. In 1875, the nation past civil rights bill and refused to enforce it 1960 for the nation passed an even weaker civil rights bill and even to this day It has not been enforced in all of

00:11:51.830 - 00:12:33.550

its dimensions. In 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional in the public schools And now we find ourselves 12 or 13, so we must not allow anybody to take our eyes from the real problem. There were no chance of black power when four innocent un offending

00:12:33.550 - 00:12:56.890

beautiful negro girls were killed in a church in Birmingham Alabama and nothing has been done about it to this very day. We must see the problem where it is. The problem is that's quite America and I don't mean all white americans. White America has never solidly

00:12:56.890 - 00:13:19.700

committed itself on the question of racial justice and it means that now we must guard our courage. Those who are committed to the struggle for justice and freedom just work harder than ever before. For I assure you that we need this kind of activity and this

00:13:19.700 - 00:13:50.960

kind of work more than we had it. Even in the first phase. I know that we're going through a period where there are understandable suspicions in some segments of the negro community, monstrous octopus. Get it stands, it's nagging prehensile tentacles in villages and cities all over.

00:13:51.640 - 00:14:12.250

I'll need time and in the same breath contend that they are not racist. All of these things reveal that the white back backlash is nothing new. The fact is that America has been back lashing on the question of fundamental human rights for its black citizens for

00:14:12.250 - 00:14:33.410

more than 300 years years, later. It was less with less than five Of the negro students of the deep south attending integrated schools. And if it continues at this pace, it will take another 97 years to integrate the public schools of the south. Suburban politicians talk

00:14:33.420 - 00:15:03.090

eloquently against open housing and at the same time, Some 40 million of our brothers and sisters are poverty stricken. Many of them go to bed hungry tonight. I've seen them with my own eyes. I've lived with them in the ghettos of our nation. Some of them

00:15:03.090 - 00:15:31.640

are indians, some a mexican american, some of Puerto, Rican salma Appalachian whites. The largest group in terms of in proportion to its size and the population is the american negro negroes and poor people generally find themselves today smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the

00:15:31.640 - 00:15:55.820

midst of an affluent society. Now, something must be done about this. Something must be done about it quickly when we look at the negro community for an instance, we are facing a major depression every day. The unemployment Rate among negroes is set forth by the Labour

00:15:55.820 - 00:16:12.860

Department at 8.4% unemployment in the nation, general is about 4%. But they don't deal with all of the facts because they're dealing with statistics that can be gathered as a result of people who have been in the labor market and those who still go to the

00:16:12.860 - 00:16:32.490

employment office to try to find work. They are dealing with the hundreds and thousands of discouraged negroes, many of whom have lost hope. They've had so many doors closed in their faces. They've come to conclude that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit

00:16:32.490 - 00:16:55.740

sign. They've lost motivation. There may be another seven or 8% in that category, Which means that the unemployment rate among negroes may well be 16% among some Young people, among the youth, in the Negro community. In some cities that goes up as high as 35 and

00:16:55.740 - 00:17:17.670

40%. If the nation as a whole confronted what the negro is presently confronting economically, we would be in a major depression more staggering than the depression of the 30s. And it's not only unemployment, most of the poor people are working everyday, but earning so little money

00:17:18.640 - 00:17:47.120

Estimated the other day that we spend $500,000 to kill every enemy soldier in Vietnam. And when you look at the other side, it's tragic. We spend only $53 a year for every person that's considered poverty stricken half of that goes for salaries for those who are

00:17:47.120 - 00:18:25.140

not poor. The question is, what are we trying to win today? I'm afraid that the administration of our nation is more concerned about winning an unwinnable war in Vietnam than about winning the war against poverty right here at home. Now, this leads me to the next

00:18:25.150 - 00:19:01.200

evil. It is the evil of war. And nowhere does this evil express today more than in the tragic, unjust evil Warren Vietnam. It's tragic that we got in it from the very beginning. As Professor Commager has said this tragic war is a product of a gigantic

00:19:01.340 - 00:19:37.800

miscalculation. That's the world after 1945 was and would remain divided into two great blocks, one representing light and the other darkness and that we who represented the light, stirred at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord. Somehow we moved right on with those miscalculations. This war

00:19:37.800 - 00:20:02.230

is the product of a gigantic miscalculation about china and about Asia, probably the largest and most fearful miscalculation in diplomatic history. The notion that Chiang kai shek represented the true china that the communists did not represent china And we're not really here to stay and need

00:20:02.230 - 00:20:37.000

not therefore be recognized. It was as if Britain and France had gone on recognizing the confederacy as the legitimate government of the United States. 20 years of mathematics, it is the product of an almost demonic delusion that we were not on the called upon to set

00:20:37.000 - 00:21:00.320

and keep the rest of the world straight, but that we had the material intellectual and moral resources to do this. It is a product of grave miscalculations that because we were a world power, we had power and could use it everywhere in the world. And out

00:21:00.320 - 00:21:30.790

of this melancholy body of obsession and miscalculations have come those notions now so familiar that we, not the United Nations, are the peacekeeping instrument of the modern world. Once. Except these assumptions assumptions, almost paranoid in their sweeping vastness. And our war in Vietnam takes on a

00:21:30.790 - 00:22:23.670

kind of nightmarish logic. This war has all of the dimensions of a greek tragedy. You know, it has done so much damage to our nation Vietnam and ending that war of vino in the next time to come home from Vietnam A

00:22:23.740 - 00:22:52.770

Yes. Another casualty of the war in Vietnam is the humility of our nation through rugged determination, scientific and technological process. Progress, as I mentioned earlier, we have become the richest and most powerful nation in the world, but honestly impels me to admit and our power has

00:22:52.770 - 00:23:20.540

often made us arrogant. We feel that our money can do anything. We arrogantly feel that we have everything to teach other nations and nothing to learn from them. We often arrogantly feel that we have some divine Messianic mission to police the whole world. We are arrogant

00:23:20.540 - 00:23:44.030

in not allowing young nations to go through the same growing pains turbulence and revolution that characterized our own history? We are arrogant in our contention that we have some sacred mission to protect people from totalitarian rule. While we make little use of our power to end

00:23:44.030 - 00:24:16.780

the evils of South africa and Rhodesia, the problems facing our nation and facing mankind. The other thing about this war in Vietnam is that it has increased the possibilities of all out nuclear warfare and therefore it is, it has increased the possibilities of the destruction of

00:24:16.780 - 00:24:46.330

all mankind. And I must say to you honestly this afternoon, and I'm sad to say it, but I fear that the clouds, the third World War hovering mighty low. And if there is a 3rd World War which can destroy the whole of mankind, our government will

00:24:46.330 - 00:25:17.190

have to take the chief responsibility for making this a reality. Talking with people about the war in Vietnam, giving them the facts about the war. Developing statistics on the number of people opposed to the war and the aim is to build a powerful peace block that

00:25:17.190 - 00:25:42.250

can really have influence In the 1968 elections and we must make it clear that we are going to let our political forces and the politicians ignore Vietnam in 1968. This must be an issue if that tragic war is still going on. And so as the war

00:25:42.250 - 00:26:22.940

hawks escalate the war in Vietnam, we must escalate our protest against the war. Thank you. Our reporter said to me the other day. Dr King. Don't you think you're hurting your influence? Don't you think by taking a stand against

00:26:22.940 - 00:26:45.490

the war in Vietnam, you are losing many people who once respected you, they will no longer listen to you. Now, don't you think you must kind of move back go more towards the administration's policy? And I looked at this reporter and said, I'm sorry, sir, but

00:26:45.490 - 00:27:40.740

you don't know me. I'm not a consensus leader. So as I moved toward my conclusion, let me say that there is a need in our country for kind of created discontent. There are certain technical words that are used in every academic discipline. They soon

00:27:40.740 - 00:28:03.340

become stereotypes and cliches. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is a word maladjusted and certainly we all want to live as far as possible the well adjusted life in

00:28:03.340 - 00:28:24.220

order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. And I must say to you this afternoon, there are some things in our, in our nation and in the world of which I'm proud to be maladjusted, which I call upon all men of good will to be maladjusted until

00:28:24.220 - 00:28:49.680

the good society's realized. I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never

00:28:49.680 - 00:29:10.000

intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism. But in the day when Sputniks and explorers and geminis are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere. No nation can win. That is a world war. And we must

00:29:10.000 - 00:29:30.010

come to see now that the alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of nuclear tests. The alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation and our earthly habitat will be

00:29:30.010 - 00:29:54.540

transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Donte could not envision. It may well be that our world is in dire need of a new organization, the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Mala adjustment, desolate Midnight of Man's inhumanity to man into the bright

00:29:54.540 - 00:30:18.950

and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. And somehow I still have faith that keeps me going through these difficult days. I hope that we will develop the coalition of conscience. We will solve this problem. I'll tell you why I have the faith and it is because

00:30:18.950 - 00:30:38.100

of universities like this with thousands of young people, black and white who have the new vision that we need in this age. And so I haven't lost faith in the future. I think we're gonna reach the goal that we seek. And so I can still sing.

00:30:38.100 - 00:30:53.800

We shall overcome. I know many can't sing it now but I can still sing it because I believe the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. We shall join hands right in this nation and sing in the words of the old,

00:30:53.800 - 00:32:04.670

negro, spiritual free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. Yes. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Okay. Mm hmm. Okay. Mhm. You just need to find out what was happening. Mhm. Yeah.