Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave Beyond Vietnam speech / Margaret Oliphant born - April 4

On this day in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his Beyond Vietnam speech, denouncing the war in Vietnam. / On this day in 1828, Scottish writer Margaret Oliphant was born.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, we're rerunning two episodes today. Enjoy the show.
What's Up? Everyone? Welcome to this day in History Class,
where we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.
The day was April four, nineteen sixty seven. Civil rights

(00:24):
leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered a speech at
Riverside Church in New York City denouncing the Vietnam War
in front of three thousand people. King had voiced his
opposition to the war in Vietnam before, but this time
King's speech largely focused on the problems of the war
and the need for social justice, and it was radical.

(00:47):
The speech, entitled Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence,
was met with a ton of criticism, but King didn't
let up on his anti war dance. King had long
been praised as a bastion of non violent protests and
social activism, but he was still an enemy in many
people's eyes. FBI director j Edgar Hoover called him the

(01:08):
most dangerous man in America, and by the time he
gave the Beyond Vietnam speech, King was already falling out
of favor with the public Americans. Opinions were mixed on
whether U s military involvement in Vietnam was a mistake.
In early nineteen sixty seven, there were a lot of
people who still supported the war and who took issue

(01:29):
with King's criticism of it, But the King the Vietnam
War was not about saving people from the threat of communism.
The US was plagued by militarism, materialism, and racism. Instead
of spending loads of money to commit atrocities in an
illegitimate war, King argued that American power should be harnessed

(01:50):
to the service of peace and human beings, not an
inhumane power unleashed against defenseless people. King had first announced
the Vietnam War in March nine, teen sixty five, when
he said millions of dollars can be spent every day
to hold troops in South Vietnam, and our country cannot
protect the rights of negros in Selma. Throughout nineteen sixty

(02:12):
five and nineteen sixty six, King committed to non violence
anywhere continued to condemn the war. He had a solid
relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had advanced civil
rights legislation, but King was firm in his belief that
the civil rights movement was tied to American military aggression abroad,
and in Los Angeles in February nineteen sixty seven, he

(02:35):
gave a speech called the Casualties of the War in Vietnam.
Vincent Harding, a history professor at Spellman College in Atlanta,
had written the speech for the Los Angeles address, and
he drafted the speech that King would give at Riverside Church.
Wesleyan professor John McGuire also helped draft the speech, and
on April four, nineteen sixty seven, King was accompanied by

(02:59):
Amorous Ledge, professor Henry Commager, Union Theological Seminary president John Bennett,
and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at an event sponsored by
clergy and layman. Concerned about Vietnam, King delivered his Beyond
Vietnam speech, claiming his conscience left him no other choice.
In the speech, King mentioned his reason for speaking up,

(03:23):
and I knew that I could never again raise my
voice against the violence of the oppressed and the ghettos
without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today, my own government. King charged
the US with rebeling in its wealth while it created
a hill for the poor. He suggested a five point

(03:44):
plan for stopping the war in Vietnam. But it was
about more than just Vietnam. This war was just one
expression of American colonialism. He said that peaceful revolution was
now impossible and a radical revolution of values was in parrative.
Near the end of his speech, King said the following,

(04:05):
we still have a choice today. Non violent coexistence are
violent co annihilation. We must move past indecision to action.
We must find new ways to speak for peace in
Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that
borders on our doors. If we do not act, we
shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful

(04:28):
corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion,
might without morality, and strength without sight. The war in
Vietnam was a controversial issue, and his speech inspired lots
of backlash. Scholar and diplomat Ralph Bunch, as well as
the National Association for the Advancement of Color People or

(04:51):
in double a CP, accused King of linking unrelated issues,
and in April seven New York Times editorial titled doctor
King's Error, the Times wrote, linking these hard, complex problems
will lead not to solutions, but to deeper confusion, the
Washington Post set about King. Many who have listened to

(05:13):
him with respect will never again accord him the same confidence.
He has diminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country,
and to his people, and that is a great tragedy.
King stood by his views that the Vietnam War was
morally and economically wrong. As a result, his relationship with
the Johnson administration soured. The Church showed him support, but

(05:36):
the mainstream media, other civil rights activists, and politicians did not.
King had began professing his anti war sentiment before the
anti war movement picked up in America, but he continued
to give speeches against the Vietnam War even as the
FBI began seeing him as more of a political threat
and upped his surveillance and harassment of King. He wasn't

(06:00):
worried about gallop poles measuring his popularity or losing political respect.
Exactly one year to the day after King gave this speech,
he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
I'm each Jeffcoat, and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. I just wanted

(06:23):
to add something that Vincent Harding said about the criticism
that King was getting. He said that it reflected a
kind of paternalism. Harding said it was as if his
critics were saying the following, Martin Luther King, you have
forgotten who you are and who we are. You should
be very very happy that we have allowed you to
talk critically about race relations in this country. You should

(06:45):
be very happy that we've allowed you to talk about
Negro things. But MLK, when it comes to the foreign
policy of this country, you are not qualified to speak
to these issues. These are our issues. Our white establishment
is in charge of such things, and you are absolutely
out of your place to enter into this kind of arena.

(07:06):
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
t d i h C podcast. Thanks again for listening
and we'll see you again tomorrow. Hey everyone, I'm Eves

(07:38):
and welcome to This Day in History Class, a podcast
that proves history happens every single day. I think that
that is abundantly clear right now to all of us
that we are living in historically important and challenging times.
But there are new things that we can talk about
every day that happened in history, and hopefully let these

(08:00):
episodes of this day and history class can bring a
little something new to every day for you. With that said,
on with the show. The day was April four eight
Scottish novelist and historical writer Margaret Olaphant was born. Over

(08:25):
the course of her life, Olaphant published nearly one hundred novels,
more than fifty short stories and mini biographies and articles.
Margaret was born in Wallyford, Scotland. Her parents were Margaret
and Francis Wilson, and she grew up with two older brothers.
The family lived in Glasgow, Scotland for a while before

(08:47):
they moved to Liverpool, England in eighteen thirty eight. Though
there is no record of Margaret having a formal education,
she spent a lot of time reading the books, magazines
and newspapers kept her company. She lived a relatively secluded life.
Margaret began writing in her teens. In eighteen forty nine,
she published her first novel, Passages in the Life of

(09:10):
Mrs Margaret Maitland. The book was not a huge hit,
but it did garner Olaphant some recognition in the British
literary world. In eighteen fifty one, she published a historical
novel called Caleb Field, a Tale of the Puritans. From
this point on, she consistently published novels. In eighteen fifty two,

(09:31):
Margaret married her cousin, Francis Wilson Olaphant. This made her
full name Margaret Olaphant Wilson Olaphant, and she sometimes published
anonymously under the initials m O WO. Over the next
few years, Oliphant gave birth to several children, though some
of them did not live past childhood. She also helped

(09:53):
support her brother, Willie, who dealt with alcoholism. He helped
Margaret by assisting her in negotiations with publishers. Francis died
in eighteen fifty nine after getting tuberculosis, leaving her to
take care of her children and other family members. Margaret
was prolific, and she credited the amount that she wrote

(10:13):
to how many people's lives depended on her success. Margaret
contributed to Blackwood's Magazine, a publication popular among Victorian readers
for several decades. She published stories, articles, essays, and serialized
novels With Blackwoods. She published some of her best known novels,
The Chronicles of Carlingford, throughout the mid eighteen sixties. In

(10:36):
Blackwoods the series followed the lives of people in the
fictional English town of Carlingford. Though these works boosted her
reputation and she published incessantly until her death, she was
criticized by some for producing too much. Tragically, her eleven
year old daughter Maggie died in eighteen sixty four after

(10:57):
getting the stomach flu, and in eighteen six the eight
her brother Frank went bankrupt, dying a few years later.
Margaret was left to raise his children, and in her
later years she turned to writing supernatural fiction, and her
writing continued to provide her with financial support. But in
the nineties her two sons died, so that she had

(11:19):
outlived many of the people in her family. At this
point she lost some of her desire to write fiction.
She turned to her autobiography, which she had begun writing
decades earlier. She planned on the work being published after
her death, with the money made from it going to
her niece. Oliphant died in her autobiography was published two

(11:42):
years later. In the book, she noted that beyond needing
the money, she wrote to cope with her sorrow. The
last project she worked on was a history of the
Blackwood Publishing House, which was published posthumously. Though she didn't
get a ton of recognition for being a literary writer
during her lifetime, her work gained renewed interest in the

(12:04):
last decades of the twentieth century for its observations of
Victorian society. I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
Don't be afraid to give us a shout or a
share on social media. We're at t d i h
C Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and you can

(12:25):
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dot com. Hope you enjoyed the show and we'll be
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