Organize a Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” Speech in your Community

April 4, 2024 is the 56th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Prophetic Speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

In the years following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, peace and justice groups in Oakland, California have organized annual public participatory readings of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s seminal speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” in front of our Federal Building or City Hall.  We have involved local elected officials, community activists and students in the readings, which have often been preceded by press conferences linking the reading to issues of current concern. The readers are instructed not to change Dr. King’s words or add any of their own. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we resumed our in-person readings in 2022 and we are looking forward to gathering again this April 4.

Why This Speech?

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his tragic assassination, in his prophetic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism that blames poor people for their own poverty, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

This year’s public readings of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” are helping to build momentum for the Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up. Drawing on the transformational history of the First Reconstruction following the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the civil rights struggles of the 20th century, the Third Reconstruction is a revival of our constitutional commitment to establish justice, provide for the general welfare, end decades of austerity, and recognize that policies that center the 140 million poor and low-income people in the country are also good economic policies that can heal and transform the nation.

United for Peace & Justice is proud to be a national mobilizing partner with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Please let us know if your group is organizing a reading by completing this form.

Here’s a “tool kit” to help you organize a public reading in your community.

We have divided the speech into 16 sections, with an introduction in two parts, which means you can have as many as 18 readers. You can have fewer readers with each reader reading more than one section. Or you can subdivide the speech further to accommodate additional readers. We suggest that you print out the introduction and speech in an enlarged font and assemble two or three 3-ring binders including the full introduction and speech, with blank pages saying “next reader” between the sections (see materials below). Or you can simply print out a few copies of the speech and pass them around among the readers. The introduction and speech are also available in Spanish.

Invite impacted folks, community leaders, activist groups, local elected officials, college, and high school students to participate in a public reading in front of your Federal Building, City Hall, park, or other location, or inside a library, school, or church/temple. Try to choose a wheelchair accessible location. You may need to secure a permit for a public assembly or sound system. Consider holding a press conference in advance. You can also organize a “virtual” reading using Zoom.

Set up a “podium” and some visuals (optional). The podium can be as simple as a music stand draped with a cloth, where you can support one of the open binders, and posters or banners depicting Dr. King and whatever messages you want to project. You don’t have to have a podium and visuals. The reading can be as simple and informal as you like.

Before the reading you may wish to do a land acknowledgement, honoring the original people whose land you are on. Begin the reading by sounding a gong or bell, signifying a moment of silence, and start with two people reading the introduction. You may wish to prepare a list of readers in advance, which you can post on butcher paper or a whiteboard. You should have an extra binder or two, or extra copies of the speech available so that readers can practice reading their sections in advance.

Provide your readers with a set of simple instructions so they will know that they should not make additional remarks. You may also wish to provide readers with badges identifying them as readers. (These are in the materials below.)

If there’s a lot of interest from prospective readers, you may wish to repeat the reading several times. In Oakland we have done as many as three consecutive readings, ending with a symbolic ceremony at sundown.

 

Materials

 

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