Martin Luther King, Jr., SCLC Presidential Address, 1967 Speech (Where Do We Go From Here?)

http://vimeo.com/11154217


...And one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society...

Martin Luther King on racism, poverty, capitalism, and other big questions

This is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last presidential address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1967). For those who have tried to convert Dr. King into a harmless symbol while ignoring his message,this is a most uncomfortable speech indeed, which is why you never hear too much about it. It remains relevant today. I've culled this from “A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin LutherKing, Jr.,” edited by James Melvin Washington, where this speech is published under the title “Where Do We Go From Here?”


Now, don't think that you have me in a “bind” today. I'm not talkingabout communism.

What I'm saying to you this morning is that communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.

If you will let me be a preacher just a little bit—One night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus didn't get bogged down in the kind of isolated approach of what he shouldn't do. Jesus didn't say, “Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying.” He didn't say, “Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that.” He didn't say, “Nicodemus, you must not commit adultery.” He didn't say, “Nicodemus, now you must stop drinking liquor if you are doing that excessively.” He said something altogether different, because Jesus realized something basic—that if a man will lie, he will steal. And if a man will steal, he will kill. So instead of just getting bogged down in one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.”

He said, in other words, “Your whole structure must be changed.” A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will “thingify” them—make them things. Therefore they will exploit them, and poor people generally, economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have foreign investments and everything else, and will ahve to use its military to protect them. All of these problems are tied together.

What I am saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, “America, you must be born again!”