On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a searing indictment of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech at New York’s Riverside Church. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
As a result of King’s speech at Riverside, he faced an abrupt loss of his national popularity and backlash from members of his own organization in the final year of his life.
Check out a timeline of Dr. King’s final year, from Riverside Church to Memphis.
I am always reminded of the stuggle in which Dr. King tried to help someone, somebody. If he was alive today I only wonder what he would do or say. It has reminded me over and over that as some say: “Is this the best we can do after all the old folks has done for us and our children”. It makes you really think. This was good ground work done by pbs.