Discourse that allows us to express a wide range of ideas, opinions, and analysis that can be used as an opportunity to critically examine and observe what our experience means to us beyond the given social/cultural contexts and norms that are provided us.
VIDEO EXCERPT from
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the
award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964: TRANSCRIPT:
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I
accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of
the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end
the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a
civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic
scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of
justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our
children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses,
snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in
Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to
vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40
houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or
burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept
segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty
afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic
ladder.
Therefore,
I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered
and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won
the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace …
After
contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of
that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer
to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for
man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence
and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.
Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have
demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful
moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all
the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in
peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative
psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all
human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and
retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
The
tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears
witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are
travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened
for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new
Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and
lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in
increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.
I
accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an
audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as
the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the
idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally
incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever
confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and
jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events
which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so
tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the
bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I
refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must
spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear
destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will
have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated
is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s
mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter
tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the
blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of
shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to
believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their
bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and
freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have
torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day
mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over
war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the
rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and
every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be
afraid.” I still believe that we shall overcome!
This
faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It
will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride
toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with
low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand
midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a
genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Today
I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to
humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and
brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I
am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.
Every
time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a
successful journey possible – the known pilots and the unknown ground
crew.
So
you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the
controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once
again, Chief Lutuli of
South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met
with the most brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. You honor
the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to
freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never
make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet
when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is
focused on this marvellous age in which we live – men and women will
know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better
people, a more noble civilization – because these humble children of God
were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.
… peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
I
think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this
award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he
holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth
and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood
and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 speech at the National Conference on New Politics in Chicago. Here, he speaks about what he calls the Triple Evils: War, Racism and Poverty. By 1967, war, racism, and poverty had become the dominant issues confronting America and the Freedom Movement. On April 4, Dr. King forcefully speaks out against the Vietnam War with "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. Ten days later, in a speech at Stanford University titled "The Other America," Dr. King addresses race, poverty and economic justice. (At various times in 1967 and '68 he gave slightly different versions of "The Other America" to other audiences. - www.crmvet.org
In a Democracy Now! and Pacifica Radio Archives exclusive, we air a newly discovered recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On December 7, 1964, days before he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, King gave a major address in London on segregation, the fight for civil rights and his support for Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The speech was recorded by Saul Bernstein, who was working as the European correspondent for Pacifica Radio. Bernstein’s recording was recently discovered by Brian DeShazor, director of the Pacifica Radio Archives.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘The Economic Problem Is the Most Serious Problem
February 23, 2017 The Nation
In February, 1968, Harry Belafonte hosted "The Tonight Show" and brought politics and activism into America's living rooms. In this clip, Martin Luther King Jr. talks to Belafonte about what is needed to achieve true civil rights.
VIDEO: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on The Tonight Show on NBC with guest host Harry Belafonte in February 1968 just two months before Dr. King's assassination on April 4, 1968.
In honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) -- visionary prophet, social activist, cultural critic, public intellectual, community organizer, radical political leader, and profound global advocate and defender of peace, freedom, justice, equality, and human rights whose extraordinary contributions to the history of the ongoing African American liberation struggle in all of its many complex dimensions, and the general mass movements for social, cultural, economic, and political revolution against all forms of racism, sexism, militarism, imperialism, and class domination in the United States and in the rest of the world remain absolutely essential and invaluable to this day.
Monthly Review An Independent Socialist Magazine Topics: History , Labor
Book Review
The Jack O’Dell Story by Paul Buhle May 1, 2011
PHOTO: Jack O’Dell (1923-2019), also known as Hunter Pitts O’Dell, was a Communist Party organizer, an outstanding political theorist and journalist a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a trusted senior advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a civil rights activist. O’Dell was deeply involved in Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign, as well as numerous other civil rights organizing events throughout the United States. He died at age 96 in 2019.
MLK Day Special: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words January 15, 2024 Democracy Now!
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.
Jack O'Dell (1923-2019): Black Activist & Civil Rights Organizer February 24, 2024
Jack O'Dell (1923-2019)
Jack
O'Dell (1923-2019) was a well-known activist, writer, organizer,
Communist Party member (CPUSA) , labor and SCLC organizer and close
confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Detroit, O'Dell briefly
attended Diliard University in New Orleans. After enlisting in the
United State Army during World War II, he joined the National Martime
Union. By the late 1950's, he was heavily involved with SCLC and Martin
Luther King. Forced to leave SCLC because of his Communist affliations,
O'Dell went on to serve as an editor at Freedomways Magazine, chair the
Pacifica Foundation radio station group and served as an aide for
Operation PUSH and Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 Presidential
campaigns.
Jack O’Dell testified before the Senate internal security subcommittee in 1956. He was called to respond to questions about whether he was an organizer for the Communist Party, but he declined to answer and called the chairman, Senator James Eastland, a Mississippi Democrat, “an enemy of the Negro people, and an avowed one
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against."
W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)
"There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. "
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
"Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society."
"A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization."
Nina Simone (1933-2003)
"There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art, the things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on. That's people like Billie Holiday and I hope that I will be that lucky, but meanwhile, the function, so far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times, whatever that might be."
Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973)
"Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's head. They are fighting to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children ....Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories..." .
Angela Davis (b. 1944)
"The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean? If you are free in a political sense but have no food, what's that? The freedom to starve?”
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
“Jazz is the freest musical expression we have yet seen. To me, then, jazz means simply freedom of musical speech! And it is precisely because of this freedom that so many varied forms of jazz exist. The important thing to remember, however, is that not one of these forms represents jazz by itself. Jazz simply means the freedom to have many forms.”
Amiri Baraka (1934-2014)
"Thought is more important than art. To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even to understand what art is."
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” --August 3, 1857
Cecil Taylor (1929-2018)
“Musical categories don’t mean anything unless we talk about the actual specific acts that people go through to make music, how one speaks, dances, dresses, moves, thinks, makes love...all these things. We begin with a sound and then say, what is the function of that sound, what is determining the procedures of that sound? Then we can talk about how it motivates or regenerates itself, and that’s where we have tradition.”
Ella Baker (1903-1986)
"Strong people don't need strong leaders"
Paul Robeson (1898-1976)
"The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."
John Coltrane (1926-1967)
"I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good."
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
"Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around."
C.L.R. James (1901-1989)
"All development takes place by means of self-movement, not organization by external forces. It is within the organism itself (i.e. within the society) that there must be realized new motives, new possibilities."
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
"Now, political education means opening minds, awakening them, and allowing the birth of their intelligence as [Aime] Cesaire said, it is 'to invent souls.' To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them."
Edward Said (1935-2003)
“I take criticism so seriously as to believe that, even in the midst of a battle in which one is unmistakably on one side against another, there should be criticism, because there must be critical consciousness if there are to be issues, problems, values, even lives to be fought for."
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)
“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. There must be pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.”
Susan Sontag (1933-2004)
"Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager."
Kofi Natambu, editor of The Panopticon Review, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He is the author of a biography MALCOLM X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: THE MELODY NEVER STOPS (Past Tents Press) and INTERVALS (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of SOLID GROUND: A NEW WORLD JOURNAL, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280 "Jack O’Dell testified before the Senate internal security subcommittee in 1956. He was called to respond to questions about whether he was an organizer for the Communist Party, but he declined to answer and called the chairman, Senator James Eastland, a Mississippi Democrat, “an enemy of the Negro people, and an avowed one")
