Notices by D. Elisabeth Glassco (deglassco@mastodon.social), page 2

King contended that America hindered peaceful revolution by refusing to relinquish the benefits from overseas investments and advocated for a radical shift in values towards love and justice, rather than economic nationalism.

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Image: An unidentified US soldier wears a hand-lettered slogan on his helmet in June 1965. Phuoc Vinh airfield.

King also provided a historical perspective, condemning Western arrogance for Vietnam’s devastation, asserting that the U.S. sided with the wealthy while creating misery for the poor. He outlined a 5-point plan to end the war, including a call for a unilateral ceasefire. To King, the Vietnam War was a glaring symptom of American colonialism worldwide.

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Image: Entertainers Carroll Baker and Bob Hope on the flight deck of the USS Ticonderoga in December 1965

For example, when he declared, "For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I could not be silent," he employed parallelism to escalate his call to action, urging his audience to voice their opinions and actively oppose the unjust war in Vietnam.

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Image: Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Vietcong fire on 1 January 1966

According to the PBS documentary "MLK: A Call to Conscience" (2010), the speech faced condemnation from 168 newspapers across the nation. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 1964, went so far as to suggest that the speech "might be on the brink of treason."

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Image: Barry Goldwater, 1962.

The initial response to King’s speech at Riverside Church in April 1967 was met with a considerable degree of skepticism and criticism. For instance, the Washington Post published an editorial on April 6, 1967, titled “A Tragedy,” in which they characterized King’s speech as “sheer inventions of unsupported fantasy” and lamented how “many who have listened to him with respect will never again accord him the same confidence.”

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Image: Dr. King displays his book in Atlanta, March 4, 1968

Whitney Young Jr., the executive director of the National Urban League, questioned King’s decision to speak out against the Vietnam War, fearing that it would divert attention and resources away from the pressing issues of racial inequality and poverty in the United States. Young believed that King should concentrate on these domestic concerns rather than becoming embroiled in foreign policy matters.

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Image: Whitney Young Jr. late 1950s..

The New York Times characterized King’s words as both “facile” and “slander.” It said the moral issues in Vietnam “are less clear-cut than he suggests” and warned that “to divert the energies of the civil rights movement to the Vietnam issue is both wasteful and self-defeating,” given how the movement needed to confront what the paper called “the intractability of slum mores and habits.”

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Image: Lyndon Johnson, King, and other civil rights leaders White House Jan. 18, 1964.

Said. Bunche:

"He is, after all, an active clergyman and naturally sensitive to moral issues and values. But he should realize that his anti-U.S. in Vietnam crusade is bound to alienate many friends and supporters of the civil rights movement and greatly weaken it - an ironic twist for a civil rights leader."

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Image: King, third from the right, listens to United Nations Undersecretary Ralph Bunche, in 1967

Dr. Ralph A. Bunche, a former United Nations Under Secretary for Political Affairs, director of the N.A.A.C.P. Dr. Bunche, and winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize, expressed reservations about King’s decision to link civil rights and the Vietnam War, believing that these were distinct issues that should not be conflated.

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Image: Dr. Ralph Bunche (1904-1971)

Not many people faced & overcame the challenges that Lewis Howard Latimer did, not only as an inventor but also in the battles against societal prejudices. Latimer, a Black American inventor & draftsman, played a pivotal role in the development of the telephone & electric light bulb, among other things. His journey from the son of escaped slaves to one of the foremost inventors of his era serves as a testament to his tenacity and genius.

Image: Lewis Latimer, published by HarperCollins.

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Books

Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Armstrong, Thomas M. Autobiography of a Freedom Rider: My Life as a Foot Soldier for Civil Rights. Health Communications Inc, 2011.

Branch, Taylor. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. Simon & Schuster, 2007.

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Resources

https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/women-in-the-civil-rights-movement/

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/civil-rights-era.html

https://www.nps.gov/articles/women-in-the-civil-rights-movement-historic-context-statement-and-aacrn-listing-guidance-african-american-civil-rights-network.htm

https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/the-civil-rights-movement-in-mississippi-on-violence-and-nonviolence

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/importantpeople.htm

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Often overlooked is Ella Baker, who was was instrumental in organizing at the grassroots level and was a key figure behind the formation of the SNCC.

Image: Ella Baker speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, August 1964.

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The Freedom Rideers are most exemplary of how the energy of youth can was used to complement the wisdom of the elders. Students and young adults boarded buses to challenge segregation in interstate transportation. They faced extreme violence, especially in places like Birmingham and Montgomery.

Image 1: A Greyhound bus burns after being firebombed by a mob outside of Anniston, Alabama.

Image 2: Freedom Rider, set upon after he and others arrived in Montgomery.

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Initiated by young students in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, sit-ins spread rapidly. Local college and high school students would non-violently occupy “whites-only” seats at lunch counters.

Local students formed groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played major roles in sit-ins and Freedom Rides, challenging segregation in the Deep South.

Image: Sit-in, Nashville lunch counter, 1960.

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Critical also was that of local black businesses who supported the movement, even if it meant losing white customers. these businesses provided resources, meeting spaces, and funds.

Churches were Central locations for organizing. Local churches were vital hubs for the Civil Rights Movement. They were meeting places, refuge points, and centers for education and strategy sessions.

Image: 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama.

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Locals faced daily threats, intimidation, and violence. Many were arrested, beaten, or even killed. The emotional toll of living under Jim Crow and fighting against it was immense. For example, Medgar Evers, a local NAACP leader in Mississippi, Evers was assassinated in 1963. His death galvanized the movement further.

Image: Medgar Evers at the White House, 1961.

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Local people bore the brunt of economic reprisals for their activism, especially in small towns where boycotting segregated businesses could result in job losses or other economic hardships.The physical and emotional toll of civic activism was immense in the local arena. For example, Fannie Lou Hamer was vital in organizing Mississippi’s Freedom Summer and was known for her saying, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Image: Fannie Lou Hamer rallying supporters in MS, 1964.

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Showing incredible resilience, places like Albany, Georgia, saw massive local mobilization against segregation, even as activists were repeatedly arrested.

Local newspapers and journalists, many associated with the black press, played an essential role in documenting stories, especially in places the national media might have overlooked.

Image: Septima Clark, center, the “mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” with Rosa Parks and Parks’ mother, Leona McCauley, 1956.

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The local residents of towns like Selma, Alabama, and Philadelphia, Mississippi, faced direct, often violent opposition from white supremacists and sometimes from local law enforcement.

For example, Vernon Dahmer, President of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, MS had his house & family bombed. He died after being burned over 40% of his body trying to save his family. Despite the risks, local people we’re determined to an equal rights.

Image: Vernon Dahmer in his cotton field, September 1964.

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