tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. this evening marks the unveiling of a memorial honoring dr. martin luther king, jr. we will look at dr. king's legacy more than 40 years after his death and his stance against the vietnam war. dr. king's commitment toward non-violence shaved his stand fed became one of the most controversial and -- shake his stance and became one of the most controversial. we will explore the roots of his anti-war sentiments and lessons we can still learn today. we are glad you joined us for part 1 of "mlk: a call to conscience."

>> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. know. boulevard, but a place where wal-mart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, help tavis improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your >> at toyota, we celebrate its differences and the people who make them. toyota, a proud supporter of the washington, d.c. martin luther king, jr., memorial foundation. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute

--www.ncicap.org-- tavis: on april 4, 1967, one year to the day before his assassination, dr. king delivered a powerful speech to his opposition to the vietnam war. although it is not his most famous, it might have been his most important tonight we will explore the road that led to them -- led him to fervently speak out against vietnam, which led to an extreme backlash. >> i come to this magnificent house of warsh of tonight because my conscience left no other choice. the time comes when silence is betrayal.

that time has come for us in relation to vietnam. >> martin luther king knew when he gave that speech it would set off a firestorm. good >> it is a speech that challenges us, and it is his most important, and that we are uncomfortable with that speech tells us something. >> why are you joining the voices of dissent? peace and civil rights do not mix, they say. indeed, the questions and just say they do not know the world in which they live. >> with his speech, dr. king

risk everything. now the mainstream media turned against him, and civil rights publicly condemned him. hello, and thank you for joining us. i am here where martin luther king delivered his most controversial call to conscience. when he spoke in 1967, one year to the day before he would be killed in memphis, every few was jammed with listeners. in the midst of an increasingly unpopular war in asia and violent outbursts of rage in american cities, dr. king dedicated himself to non- violence, but that is not what made this speech so courageous. it was his insistence that our war in vietnam was destroying

america, and he focused on the needs of the poor and disenfranchised right at home. could america survive? >> some of us have already begun to break the silence, have found that it is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. we must speak with all the humility appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. tavis: martin luther king, jr. deliver hundreds of speeches. two of his speeches are as familiar as any and american history. price i have a dream that we will get to the promised land.

>> those have been analyzed and memorize, but the speech he gave here, emphasizing a new commitment to social justice, is the one that arguably has the most to teach as today as we search for solutions to the conflict in iraq and afghanistan and seek to narrow the gap between rich and poor here at home. he was a young lawyer when dr. king decided to speak out against the war. >> he said over and over again there was a betrayal of silence. he had been struggling, and i am sure he thought through all the things that must be said, but he said he struggled, but he was also a very honest man who tried to work his way through the

gospel. goo>> we must rapidly begin to shift, when machines and computers are considered more important than people who, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of. >> beyond vietnam was a for a speech in which dr. king spoke on the architecture of the war took on the policies of every administration that had a hand in the conflict. >> i speak as a child of god.

i speak for those who have experience debt and corruption in vietnam. i speak as a citizen of the world. i speak as one who loves america to the leaders of our own nation. the great initiatives in this world is ours, and the initiative to stop it must be ours. >> his conscience leave him no choice. he had reached a point where he had to break the silence, and we know when silence replaces the truth, the silence is alive.

martin luther king, jr. was the kind of human being, the kind of free black man where he refused to live a lie. >> he has challenged us to remember what our country looked like in 1965 and the continuing struggle for civil rights skinner -- seem to turn this country into zero warring factions. it is now almost universally acknowledged that the vietnam war. >> there is a uniformly accepted view the the war in vietnam was wrong. most people except the fact of we lost the war.

everybody agrees it was a bad war. >> of the time, many insist america was making an important stand against communism, and to question the ongoing war was tantamount to treason, so when dr. king said he was going to publicly oppose the war, there was a media conflict. dr. king's friend and ally, harry belafonte, remembers. >> i believe very strongly dr. king understood with great clarity what it was he was getting into with the efforts of the peace movement and resistance of the war in vietnam. he was not just speaking philosophically to the issues of

peace but was also speaking strongly to the issues of american political policy. >> it was that decision to speak out against war policy that made movement angry. why incur the wrath of lyndon johnson, a man many considered to be the best civil rights president since lincoln? >> one of the great attributes weekend pay president kennedy is to try to enact some of the regressive policies he sought to initiate. i am going to do my best, and i will have to have you and your help. >> you know you have it. feel free to call on me for

anything. >> call me when you are down here next time. >> i certainly will. >> the question was should we publicly oppose it? should we put ourselves at loggerheads with johnson who had done so much with us for civil rights. >> confronting the powers of this country, i have friends who said, criticize the president. the president must know what he is doing, and i heard from my father, if abraham can criticize god for his decision to destroy sodom and gomorrah, how can you not criticize the president? i thought, this is pathetic. this is the bible alive. >> some 600,000 american men were fighting in vietnam with reported a week.

money that should have gone to the war on poverty was instead going to vietnam. dr. king realize he could no longer be silent, but the question remains whether to give that speech. >> the whole purpose was to cushion what he expected was going to be negative politics for his speech 10 days later at the united nations, where they were going to be carrying vietcong flags, and his the advisers who did not want him to come out against vietnam at all said, try to do something bedframes your argument in a way it will lobby distorted. the riverside church was designed to be a statement that would generate the maximum amount of attention to what dr. king had to say, and it did not

work. >> i believe it is important to try to state clearly why i believe the church in montgomery, alabama, leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight. >> it was one of the few speeches keene did not solely wright himself, and unlike his sermons, read from a carefully constructed tex. the text went through revision after revision as many faiths of turns writing and rewriting. >> i do not -- as many took turns writing and rewriting. >> i do not think there was any speech as labored as this one while since what he wanted to impart. >> his longtime friend and lawyer was one who wrote a draft

of the speech which dr. king quickly rejected. >> he says, clarence, i thought you were my radical. i said, i did not understand what you mean. he said, what is this? you go on and stay fit issue of the war, and then you say, but on the -- and state the issue of the war, and then you say, on the other hand. he says, you above all people should know that the vietnam war is either morally right or morally wrong. >> to get the speech he wanted, dr. king turned to his closest friend, who is credited with writing the basic framework of the speech, which being embellished. >> what have you decided? >> this is my file for the first draft of the speech that was

delivered in this place. >> can i touch this? >> you can touch it, but do not touch it too hard. >> i am immediately stunned, because this is a piece of history. and for whatever changed in the draft, this first line stayed the same. "i come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. tell me why the first learned -- the first line did not change in subsequent drafts. >> martin luther king knew he wanted to speak from the opposition, not just as an anti-

vietnam leader, but as a citizen of conscience. we say in the speech that dealing with vietnam is not enough, and what we are doing in vietnam is indicative of experience and attitude of history that could lead us into similar disastrous mistakes in the future. this is a case of getting out of a certain frame of mind, of a way of thinking about ourselves and thinking about the world, and beyond vietnam meant we have got to go in that direction. >> on april 4 cover of the riverside church was standing- room-only. every few was jammed with supporters. .

hundreds stood outside hoping for a chance to hear dr. king. present was the young daughter of the rev.. her father was one of dr. king's closest allies. the rabbi stood side by side with him as a champion of the poor and disenfranchised. they both saw the bible as living text. >> the question was what will it do to the civil rights movement. everybody knew dr. king would be in town. should my father encouraged dr. king to speak out against the war? >> how do you navigate, knowing that his friend decided to give the speech and was going to be demonized? >> my father knew that dr. king meant every word of what he said at riverside church. yes, it takes courage and is

very difficult, but he also knew dr. king believed in this and wanted to do it. my father would never convincing to do anything he did not i think theantod phrase was moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. >> it was a speech to the insisted unrestricted war funding with the rail and social reforms at home, education, jobs, and lifting americans out of poverty. although other speeches were filmed in their entirety, as than 10 minutes remain of the riverside church. we only know from the audio recordings that were made. but it seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the four, both black and white -- both blackhe foreigpoor,

and white. then came the the glove in vietnam. -- the build up in vietnam. i watched it as if it was a society gone man. >> we wanted to show there was a linkage between the war and what has gone on with black america of. the war was interfering. clinton johnson wanted to have it both ways. e -- lyndon johnson wanted to have it both ways. he wanted to do good things, but he also wanted to have of war. tavis: it was a speech that asked if fear has turned americans into bullies. >> communism will never be defeated by atomic arms or nuclear weapons. to prevent us from reordering our priorities so the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of the war.

>> this speech was a radical in the sense that it gave appointed -- it gave a reminder of how far we have strayed from his main methods of -- main message that non-violence and democracy fit together and that war was corrupting our promise of freedom. >> it was a speech that vietnam violence was not sweetness and that retaliation was not straight, a speech at remains as controversial today as it was then. there are those who think your father's philosophy, king's philosophy would not work in today's world. >> i do not agree. people felt the same way in the past. they felt the same way about communism and vietnam and the threat it posed.

i have heard this in my own life. a lot of people thought non- violence was hopeless against people like connor. >> and hitler. >> 5 father was not a pacifist. he knew there were times you have to go rescue people and it may take force of arms, but he also believe you have to try as hard as you can with other methods. i see it the miracles dr. king worked in this country. can it work in other settings? i cannot say that it cannot. how could i do? >> it is a speech that resonates today as we ask ourselves if the current conflicts are a repetition of vietnam, a charge secretary of state hillary clinton strongly rejects. >> it became clear to me that

the war was devastating the hopes of support. -- of the poor. it was sending their brothers and husbands and sons to fight and to die and extraordinary proportions relative to the rest of the population. we were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them to guarantee liberties in southeast asia, which they had not found in southwest georgia and east harlem. tavis: dr. luther -- dr. martin luther king also addressed a number of issues he had been grappling with an -- how he could remain silent about an ongoing war there is an even deeper level of awareness. it grows out of my experience

over the last three years, especially the last three summers, as i have walked among the desperate and angry young men. i have told them that molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. i tried to get their deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent actions, but we ask, what about vietnam? i knew that i could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos. not without having spoken to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. >> tomorrow night, part two of our look on martin luther king's stance against the war in

vietnam and what we can still learn about military intervention around the globe. that is it for tonight. we will see you tomorrow. until then, good night, and keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a part two of our specials look aft "mlk: a call to conscience." >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where wal-mart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, help tavis improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side.

>> at toyota, we celebrate differences and the people who make them. toyota, a proud supporter of the washington, d.c., martin luther king, jr. national war project foundation. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] ♪ ♪

they brought this to me because it's furniture-- at least, it's small furniture. it's bigger than treen, or it doesn't quite fit into that, and it's carved wood in the most wonderful style-- - a mystery object so far. - yes. i want to look at the stand in more detail. so tell me what you think it is, anyway. - it just got a bit of black glass in there-- - i have no idea. i've asked lots of people for several years - and they have no idea what it is. - really? i thought i'd bring it along here today to see if you could throw any light on it. i'm very glad you did. how did you find it? where did you find it? it was in a box of goodies that belonged to my former husband - and i just had it restored. - whoever did it is to be commended because he did a first-class job-- it's what i would call sympathetic restoration.

but the fineness of this is reminiscent of the bushey school of art. um, herkomer is the man responsible for leading that movement. we look under here, these lovely big fat fleshy leaves which are beautifully carved-- look at the kick in that scroll. and then when you come down here, you've got this sort of tudoresque style with the finest possible little flowers. and each of those panels is different. i mean, they're absolutely charming. somebody might have suggested, because this is black glass, that it might be for looking at eclipses. but in fact it's a claude glass, named after claude lorrain, the artist. okay? and it is for an artist to hold up to create to the view of his picture. it's an illusionary thing. - gosh. - and if you look in here, - can you see-- - yes.

now can you see the background? can you see the trees? - yes. - right. now there's a perfect oil painting. and that's what he would have in his mind to paint. it clarified the vision. fabulously interesting! beautiful object! just wonderful. - woman: yes. - there. there it is-- - mystery object solved. - wonderful. now valuewise-- very difficult. its value wouldn't relate to its extreme rarity and interest, but to a collector today anything between £800 and £1200, - that sort of price range. - gosh. oh, yes! i know-- i've got four people lined up here who would like to buy it. yes yes.