01/20/20 01/20/20 [captioning made possible amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i knew i could never againn raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. amamy: today a democracy now! special, dr. martin luther king, jr. in his own words. we hear excerpts from two historic speeches, "beyond vietnam" and "i have beeeen to the mountaintnt" the night before he was assassinated in 1968.

>> because i have been to the mountaintop. like anybody, i would like to live a long life -- longevity has its place. but i'm not concerned about t that now. i just want to do god's will. and he's allolowed me to go up to the moununtain. and i've looked over, and i've seeeen the promised la. amy: dr. martin luther king for the hour, coming up. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'i'm amy goodman. totoday is a federal holiday that honors dr. martin luther king. he was born january 15, 1929. he was assassinated on april 4, 1968, at the lorraine motel in memphis, tennessee. he was just 39 years old. while dr. king is primarily remembered as a a civil rights leaderer, hehe also championed thehe cae of thehe poor and organizedd the poor people's campaign to addressss issues of economic justice. and dr. king was a fierce critic of u.s. foreign policy and the vietnam war. "beyond vietnam" was the speech he delivered at new york's riverside church on april 4, 1960 seven, a year to the day before he was assassinated. in it, dr. king called the united states "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." "life magazine" called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for radio hanoi."

"the washington post" said king "diminished his usefulness to his cause,, his country, his people." today, we let you decide. we play an excerpt of drdr. king's speech "beyond vietnam." >> after 1954, they watched us conspire with diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought ho chi minh to power over a united vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. when we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. also, it must be clear that the leaders of hanoi considered the presence of american troops in support of the diem regime to have bebeen the e initial mimilitary brerh of the g geneva agreement concerning f foreign t troops. they remind us that they did not begin to send troops

in large numbers and even supplies into the south until american forces had moved into the tens of thousands. hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about ththe earlier north vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. ho chi minh has watched as america has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of american plans for an invnvasion of the north. he k knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are e part of traditionall pre-invasion strategy. perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hehears the most powerful n nation of t the wod speaking of aggression as it t drops thousands of boms

onon a poor, weak nation more tn 800000ileses away from i its sh. at this point i should make itt clclear that while i havave trd to g give a voicice to the voioiceless in vietnam and to understanand the argumens of those who are called "enemy," i amam as deeply concerned ababout our own n oops ththere as anyththing elses. for itit occurs toto me that what we arere submitting t them to in vietnam is not simply the brutalizining prococess that g goes on in n ar where armies face eaeach other and seek to dedestroy. we are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the thingngs we claim to bebe fighting for are really involved. before long, they must know that their government has sent them

into a struggle among vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create a hell for the poor. somehow this madness must cease. we must stop now. i speak as a child of god and brother to the suffering poor of vietnam. i speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. i speak for the poor of america who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in vietnam. i speak as a citizen of the world, for the e world as it standsds aghast at the patath we have taken. i i speak as o one who o ves amererica,

toto the leaeaders of our own natioion -- the great initiative in this war is ours. the initiative to stop it must be ours. this is thmemessagof the grereat buddhist leaders of f vietna recentlyly one of ththem wrorote these wordrds, and i q quote - "each day the war goes on the hatred increased in the hearts of the vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. the americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. it is curious that the americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psysychological and d political defeat. the image of america will neverer again bebe the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

if we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in vietnam. if we do not stop our war against the people of vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. the world now demands a maturity of america that we may not be able to achieve. it demands that we admit we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the vietnamese people. the situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. in order to atone for our sins and errors in vietnam,

we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. and set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from vietnam in accordance with the 1954 geneva agreement, pa o of our onongoing -- [applause] part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any vietnamese who fears for r his life under the new regime, which included the liberation front. then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. we must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. meanwhile -- [applalause]

meanwhile, we and ththe churchs and d nagogues ha a contitinuing tatask to disengagege itself fromom a disgraceful commitmen. we must continue to raise our voices and our lives. if our natation persists in its perversese ways in vieietnam. we must be p prepared to match actctions with wowors by seeking oututvery creativee method of protest possible. these are the times for real choices and not false ones. we're at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our natation is to sururvive its own folly.. every man n of humane convicicts must d decide on t the protestst that b best suits s his convici. but we must all prprotest. ththat is somemething seductivy tempting about stoppppintheree

and sendining us all o off on what sosome circles has becomeme a popular crusase against the war in vietnam. i i say we must enter that struggle, but i wish to go on now to say something even more disturbingn. the wawar in vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malalady within t the american spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality -- [applalause] and if we e ignore this sobering reality,, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. they will be concerned about guatemala and peru. they will be concerned about thailand and cambodia. they will be concerned about mozambique and south africa. we will be marching for these and a dozen n other names

and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in american life and policy. [applause] and so such thoughts take us beyond vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living god. in 1957, a sensitive american official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. during the past 10 years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression

which has s now justified the presesence of u.s. military advisors in venezuela. this neeeed to maintain socialal stability fofor our investments accounts r the counterrevevolutionaryry acn of american forces inin guatemala. it tells why american helicopopters are e being used against guerrillas in cambodia and whwhy american napapalm and green beret forces have alalready been actie against rebels in peperu. itit is withth such activity that the w words of the late john f. kennedy come back to haunt us. five years ago, he said ---- "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." [apppplause] increasingly, by choice or by accident,

this is the role our nation hasas taken, the role of those who o make peacaceful revolution imimposse by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investmements. i am convinced t that if we are to get on to t the right sidide of the worldld revolution,n, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. we must rapidly begin -- [apppplause] we must rapidly begigin the shit from a t thing-oriented society to a a person-oriented socieie. whwhen machines and computute, profit mototives and d property rights, are consnsidered more important thahan people, the gigiant tripletsts of raci, extreme materialalism, and militarism are incapapable of being cononquered. a trueue revolution of values will soon cause us

to question the fairness and justice of many of o our pat and d presenenpolicici. on the one hand, we are called to play the good samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. onone day we m must come to se that the whole jericho road must be transforormed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. it comomes to see e that an edie whwhich produces beggarsrs needs restruructuring. [applause] a true revolution of values will soon look uneasily

on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. with righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the west investing huge sums of money in asia, africa, and south america, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "this is not just." it will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of south america and say, "this is not just." the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. a true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "this way of settling differences is not just." this business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows,

of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. [applause] america, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. ththere is nothing except a tragic death

wishsh to prevent us from reordering ouour prioritis so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence overer the pursuit of war.r. amy: dr. martin luther king, april 4, 1967 at riverside church in new york, explaining why he opposed the war in vietnam. we will come back to his speech in a minute.  [music break]

amy: mahalia jackson, "take my hand, precious lordrd" dr. martin luther king's favorite song. this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy odman, as s we return to dr. martin luther king's speech "beyond vietnam" april 4, 1967,

a year to the day before he was assassinated. he was speaking at riverside church in new york. >> these are revolutionary times. all over the globe, men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and opprpression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systemems of justice anand equality are beingng bo. the shirtless anand barefoot peopople of the land are rising up as never before. the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. we in ththe west musust suppot these revolutions. it is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the western nations that initiat so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world

have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. this has driven many to feel that only marxism has a revolutionary spirit. therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. with this powerful commitment, we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." a genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis

that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. this call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. this oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. when i speak of love,, i am not speakining of some sentntimental and weak respons.

i'm not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. i am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. this hindu-muslim-christian -jewish-buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beaeautifully summed up in thehe first epistle of s saint john ---- "letet us love one anoerer, fofor love is god.d. and every one that loveteth is born of god and knoweth god.. he that loloveth not knonoweth not god, f for god is lolove. if we love one anonother, god dwelelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." lelet us hope that this spirit will become the order of the d day. we can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow

before the altar of retaliation. ththe oceansns of histstory arare made turbulent byby the ever-rising tides ofof hate. history is cluttttered witith the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. as arnold toynbee says, "love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice ofof life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word." we are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. inin this unfolding conundrurm of life and history, ththere is such a ththing as b being too late.

procrastination is still the thief of time. life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. the tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. we may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are wrwritten the patheticic wo, "too late." there is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. omar khayyam is right, "the moving finger writes, and having writ moves on." we still have a choice today -- nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. we must move past indecision to action.

we must find new ways to speak for peace in vietnam and jujustice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. if we do not act, we shall surelely be dragged don the long, dark, and shameful corridors o of tie reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. now let us begin. now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. this is the cacalling of the sons of god, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. shall we say the odds are too great? shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? will our message be that the forces of american life militate against their arrival as full men,

and we send our deepest regrets? or will there be another message -- of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? the choice is ours. and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. that noble bard of yesterday, james russell lowell, eloquently stated -- "once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide. in the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side. some great cause, god's new messiah offering each the gloom or blight. and the choice goes by forever 'twixt that d darknesss and thatat light. though the cause of evivil prosper, yet 'tis truth alone is strong.

though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong. yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown standeth god within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. and if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. ifif we will make the right choice, weill be ablble to t transform e jangling discords of our w word into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. if we will but make the right choicece, we will be able to speed up the day, all over america and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. [applause] amy: dr. martin luther king, jr.,

april 4, 1967, at r riverside church in n new , explaining whye e opposed the war in vietnam.. the spspeech delivereded exacy a year to the day before h he was assassinated at the lorrrraine motel in memphi, tennessee on april 4, 1968. the night before he died, dr. king delivered his last major address. he was in memphis to support striking sanitation workers as he built momentum for a poor people's march on washington. this is some of dr. king's last speech "i have been to the mountain top." >> and you know if i were standing at the beginning of timeme with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panonoramic view of the whwe of humanan history up to now,, and the almighty said to me, "martin luther king,

which agage would you like to live in?" i would take my mental flight by egypt, and i would watch god's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of egypt through, or rather, across the red sea, through the wilderness, on toward the promised land. and in spite of its magnificence, i wouldn't stop there. i would move on by greece, and take my mind to mount olympus. and i would see plato, aristotle, socrates, euripides,

and aristophanes assembled around the parthenon. and i would watch them around the parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. but i wouldn't stop there. i would go on even to the great heyday of the roman empire, and i would see developments around there through various emperors and leaders. but i wouldn't stop there. i would even come up to the day of the renaissance and get a quick picture of all that the renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man.

but i wouldn't stop there. i would even go by the way that the man for whom i'm named had his habitat, and i would watch martin luther as he tacks his 95 theses on the door at the church of wittenberg. but i wouldn't stop there. i would come on up even to 18683 and watch a vacillating president by the name of abraham lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to signn the emancipapation proclamatio. but i i wouldn't stop there. i would even c come up to thehe early '30's

and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation, and come with an eloquent cry that "wewe have nothing toto fr but fear itself." but i wouldn't stop there. strangngely enough, i wod d tun to the almigighty and say, "if you u allow me t to live justst a few years and the sesecond half of the 20th century, i will be happy."" [a[applause] now that's a strange e statemet to makake because the world is all messed up. the nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion all around.

that's a strange statement. bubui know, somemehow, that onlnly when it is dark enoh can you sesee the stars. and i see god working in this period of the 20th century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. someththing is happening in our world. the masses of people are rising up. and wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in johannesburg, south africa, nairobi, kenya, accra, ghana, new york city, atlanta, georgia, jackson, mississippi, or memphis, tennessee, the cry is always the same -- "we want to bebe free."

[applause] and another reason i'm happy to live in this period is that we have e been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. survival demands that we grapple with them. men fofor years now haveve ben talking ababout war and peace. but now no longeger can they just talk ababout it. it is no longer r a choicece between violence and nonviolelence in t this wo. it's nonviolence or nonexistence. that is where we are today. [applause]

and also, in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done and done in a hurry to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. [applause] now, i'm just happy that god has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. and i'm happy that he's allowed me to be in memphis. i can remember -- [applause]

i can remember when negroes were just going around, as ralph has said so often, scratching where they didn't itch and laughing when they were not tickled. [applause] but that day is all over. [applalause] we mean business now and we are determined to gain our rightful place in god's world. and that's all this whole thing is about. we aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody.

we are saying that we are determined to be men. we are determined to be people. we are saying -- [applause] we are saying that we are god's children. and ifif we are gogod's childr, we d don't have to lilive like we a are forced to live. now, what does all this mean in this great period of history? it means that we've got to stay together. we've got to stay together and maintain unity. you know, whenever pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula of doing it. what was that? he kept the slaves fighting among themselves.

[applause] but whenever the slaves get together, something happens in pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. when the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. amy: dr. martin luther king, jr., april 3, 1968, the nightht before he was assassinated. we'll comeme back to this speeh in memphis, tennessee, in a minute.  [music break]

amy: n nina simone singing "why?" this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman, as we continue withth dr. kining's speech the t before he was assassinated, april 3, 1968. a rainy night t in memphis, tennessee. >> we e aren't going to let any mace stop us. we are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces. they don't know what to do. i've seeeen them so often. i remember in birmingham, alabama, when we were in n that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th street baptist church day after day. by the hundreds, we would move out and bull connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come.

but we just went before the dogs singing, "ain't gonna let nobody turn me around." [applause] bull connor next would say, "turn the fire hoses on." and as i said to you the other night, bull cononnor didn't know h history. he knew a kindnd of physics that somehow didn't relatete to the trans-physics that we knew about. and that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. and we went before the fire hoses. we had known water. if we were baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. if we were methodist or some others, we had been sprinkled. but we knew water. that couldn't stop us.

and we just went on before the dogs and we would looook at them, and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it. and we'd just go on singing, "over my head, i see freedom in the air." and then we would be thrown into paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. and they would throw us in, and old bull would say, "take 'em off." and they did and we would just go on in the paddy wagon singing, "we shall overcome." and every now and then, we'd get in jail and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers and being moved by our words and our songs. and there was a power there which bull connor couldn't adjust to,

and so we ended up transforming bull into a steer, and we won our strtruggle in birmingham. nonow let me say as i momove to my concnclusion. that we have got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in memphis. we''ve got to sesee it throug. [applause] and when we have our march, you need to be there. if it means leaving work, if it means leaving school, be there. [applause]

be concerned about your brother. you may not be on strike, but either we go up totogether or w we go down together. [applause] let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. one day a man came to jesus and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. at points he wanted to trick jesus and show him that he knew a little more than jesus knew and throw him off base. now, that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate.

but jesus immediately pulled that question from midair and placed it on a dangerous curve between jerusalem and jericho. and he talked about a certain man who fell among thihieves. you remember that a levite and a priest passed by on the other side. they didn't stop to help him. finally, a man of another race came by. he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. but he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. jesus ended up saying this was the good man, this was the great man because he had the capacity to project the "i" into the "thou" and to be concerned about his brother.

now, you know we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the levite didn't stop. at times, we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. at other times, we would speculate that there was a religious law that one who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body 24 hours before the ceremony. and every now and then, we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to jerusalem or down to jericho, rather, to organize a jericho road improvement association. that's a possibility.

maybe they felt it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect. but i'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. it's possible that those men were afraid. you sesee, the jericho road is a dangerous road. i remember when mrs. king and i were first in jerusalem. we rented a car and drove from jerusalem down to jericho. and as soon as we got on that road, i said to my wife, "i can see why jesus used this as the setting for his parable." it's a winding, meandering road. it's really conducive for ambushing. you start out in jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather, 1200 feet above sea level.

and by the time you get down to jericho 15 o or 20 minutes late, you are about 22 feet below sea level. that's a dangerous road. in the d days of jesus, it camao be known as the "b"bloody pass" and you know, it's possible that the priest and the levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. or it's possible that they felt that the man o on the ground was merely faking and he was actcting like he h had been robbed and h hut in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizurere. and so the firirst question that the priest askeked, the fifirst question that the levite asked was, "if i stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"

but then the g good samaritan cacame by and hehe reversed the question, "if i do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" that's the question before you tonight. not "if i stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job?" not "if i stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hohours that i usually spend in my office everyry day and every week as a pastor?" the question is not "if i stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" the questionon is, "if i do n not stop to help the sasanitation workersrs, what will l happen to th?" thatat's the question.. you know, seveveral yeyears ao i i was in new york cicity autographing the firirst book that i i had written.

and while sitting g there autograpaphing books, a demented black woman came up. the ononly question i heard from her was, "are you martin luther king?" and i was looking down writing and i said, "yes." the next minute i felt something beating on my chest. before i knew it, i had been stabbed by this demented woman. i was rushed to harlem hospital. it was a dark saturday afternoon. and that blade had gone through, and the x-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. and once that's punctured, you drowned in your own blood,

that's the end of you. it came out in "the new york times" the next morning that if i had merely sneezed, i would have died. well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheelchair of the hospital. they allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world kind letters came in. i read a few but one of them i will never forget. i had received one from the president and the vice president. i've forgottenen what those telegrams said. i'd received a visit and a letter from the governor of new york, but i've forgotten what that letter said. but there was another letter that came from a little girl,

a young girl who was a student at the white plains high school. and i looked at that letter and i'll never forget it. it said simply, "dear dr. king, i am a ninth-grade student at the white plains high school." she said, "while it should not matter, i would like to mention that i'm a white girl. i read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. and i read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. and i'm simply writing you to say that i'm so happy that you didn't sneeze." [applause] i want to say tonight that i, too, am happy that i didn't sneeze. because if i had sneezed,

i wouldn't have been around here to 196960 when students all over the south starteted sitting-in at lunch counters. and i knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the american dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the declaration of independence and the constitution. if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travelel. if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have been around here in 1962, when negroes in albany, georgia, decided to straighten their babacks up. and whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.

if i had sneezed -- [applause] if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of birmingham, alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the civil rights bill. if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in august, to try to o tell ameririca about a drdream that i had had. if i had sneezed -- [applause] i wouldn't have been dodown in selma, alabama, to see the great movement there. if i had sneezed, i wouldn't have been in memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisterss who are suffffering. i'm so happy that i didn't sneeze.

and they were telling me -- [applause] now, it doesn't matter now. it really doesn't matter what happens now. i left atlananta this morning. and as we got started on the plane -- there were six of us -- the pilot said over the public address system, "we are sorry for the delay, but we have dr. martin luther king on the plane. and to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. and we've had the plane protected and guarded all night." and then i got into memphis. and some began to say the threats or talk

about the threats that were out or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers. well, i don't know what wilill happenen now. we've got some difficult days ahead. but it r really doesn't matter with me now, because i've been to the mountaintop. and i don't mind. like anybody, i would like to live a long life ---- longevity has its place. but i'm not concerned abouout that now. i just want to do god's will. and he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. and i've looked over and i've seen the promised land.

i may not get there with you. but i want you to know tonight, that we, as a people,, will get to the promomised lan. and so i'm happy tonight. i'm not worried about anything. i'm not fearing any man. mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. amy: dr. martin luther king speaking on april 3, 1968. within 24 hours, he would be dead, assassinated on the balcony of the lorraine motel april 4, 1968. today is the federal holiday that honors him. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now!

p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible

hello, glad to have you with us on nhk "newsline," it's 9:00 a.m. on tuesday in tokyo. i'm miki yamamoto. we start in china where pneumonia has claimed another victim. more than 200 people have been infefected so far a and there a fears thehe numbers c could jum authorities confirm the virus can pass from human to human. the outbreak began in wuhan. health officials there announced an 89-year-old man died this week, bringing the death toll to