Organized for the Poor People’s Campaign by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Peninsula/Palo Alto and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom San Jose
We invite you to join your neighbors and faith communities to read together Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s powerful and prescient speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” which was delivered on April 4, 1967, at New York’s Riverside Church, exactly one year before his assassination. Dr. King declared: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” His words resonate now, as then, and call upon our nation to stand against racism and militarism, and to stand for peace and justice. The California Poor People’s Campaign is planning on at least 54 readings (one for each year since Dr. King’s death).
Here is the speech divided in sixteen sections (plus there will be two introductory sections, currently being written): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QuClmyJbvQsw1iEnMl2dpe6Yov7WUrN2WPsWVuRYlmY/edit?usp=sharing
This anniversary collaborative reading will be April 4th at 2pm on Zoom. Please sign up to read one of the sections of the speech by March 31, 2022. If you know which section you wish to read, sign up in that slot. If you don’t have a particular section in mind, please sign up below the “assign a section to me” line. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iLNUH0wkSt0XeXaClt6vTztganD5N1lI9rQZB7drrAI/edit?usp=sharing. If we have more than 18 volunteers, we may shorten the sections to give more folks the opportunity to read.
This community virtual reading event is organized for the Poor People’s Campaign by the Peninsula/Palo Alto and San Jose Branches of The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), in cooperation with other community groups and individuals. Contact WILPF Peninsula/Palo Alto: wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com for information. This zoom event will be recorded and the recording will be available after the event on WILPF San Jose’s YouTube channel.
Thank you for making this collaborative event possible.
Judy Adams, WILPF Peninsula/Palo Alto
Rev. Rowan Fairgrove, WILPF San Jose