Reprinted with permission from The Houston Forward Times
Approximately eleven months before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. granted an exclusive interview to NBC News’ Sander Vanocur on May 8, 1967, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as pastor.
During this over 25-minute video, Dr. King shared his unfiltered thoughts on the state of Black America, a little less than four years after he delivered his iconic “Normalcy, Never Again” speech (famously referred to as the “I Have a Dream speech) on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.
As Dr. King is interviewed by Vanocur, Dr. King said something striking in response to his question.
Vanocur: When you stood on the Lincoln Memorial, that day in August, ’63, you said ‘I Had a Dream,” did that dream envision that you could see a war in Asia, preventing the federal government doing for the Negroes, preventing the society doing for the Negroes what needed to be done?
Dr. King: That dream that I had that day has in many points turned into a nightmare.
Now I’m not one to lose hope. I keep on hoping. I still have faith in the future. But I’ve had to analyze many things over the last few years, and I would say over the last few months.
I’ve gone through a lot of soul-searching and agonizing moments. And I’ve come to see that we have many more difficulties ahead and some of the old optimism was a little superficial and now it must be tempered with a solid realism.
And I think the realistic fact is that we still have a long, long way to go and that we are involved in a war on Asian soil, which if not checked and stopped, can poison the very soul of our nation.
As the interview was ending, Vanocur asked a follow-up question, to which Dr. King kept it real and pointed out the real internal problems in the country concerning the state of Black America.
Vanocur: Dr. King, even if there had not been a war in Asia, would you still not have had this nightmare insofar as the Negro movement for equality then touched on two things the white community holds sacred—their children and their property?
Dr. King: It’s much more difficult to really arouse a conscience during a time of war. I noticed the other day, some weeks ago, a Negro was shot down in Chicago, and it was a clear case of police brutality. That was on page 30 of the paper, but on page 1 at the top was 780 Viet-Cong killed. That is something about a war like this that makes people insensitive. It dulls the conscience. It strengthens the forces of reaction. And it brings into being bitterness and hatred and violence, and it strengthens the military industrial complex of our country, and it’s made our job much more difficult because I think we can go along with some programs if we didn’t have this war on our hands. That would cause people to adjust to new developments, just as they did in the South. They said they’d never ride the bus with us, blood would flow in the streets, they wouldn’t go to school, and all of these things, but when people came to see that they had to do it because the law insisted, they finally adjusted. And, I think white people all over this country will adjust once the nation makes it clear that in schools, in housing, we’ve got to learn to live together as brothers.
I think the biggest problem now is we got our gains over the last 12 years at bargain rates, so to speak. It didn’t cost the nation anything. In fact, it helped the economic side of the nation to integrate lunch counters and public accommodations. It didn’t cost the nation anything to get the right to vote established. Now, we’re confronting issues that cannot be solved without costing the nation billions of dollars. Now I think this is where we’re getting our greatest resistance.
They may put it on many other things, but we can’t get rid of slums and poverty without it costing the nation something.
Dr. King shifted his initial viewpoint of the “dream” he spoke about in 1963, versus the current reality of where he saw things after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.
There appeared to be a visible awakening in Dr. King—a major pivot towards acknowledging the realistic need for African Americans to obtain racial, social, and economic equality.
As we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King, let us never forget his words and his transformational challenge given to all American citizens to address the inequities and systematic issues that continue to plague the African American community in this country.
Let’s take a look at a few issues that have changed—or not—since Dr. King delivered these remarks during this profound interview over 56 years ago and compare Dr. King’s views on select issues that he consistently sought to address, and where we are today on those issues.
DR. KING ON EDUCATION
On March 14, 1964, Dr. King was honored by the United Federation of Teachers and given the John Dewey Award. During his acceptance speech, Dr. King spoke about the importance of education to African Americans in this country and its tie to equality. Dr. King stated:
“It was not fortuitous that education became embroiled in this conflict. Education is one of the vital tools the Negro needs in order to advance. And yet it has been denied him by devises of segregation and manipulations with quality.”
As we look at Dr. King and the state of Black America in the 1960s, with a push for integrated schools and resources, things have not really gotten any better for Black people current day.
DR. KING ON VOTING RIGHTS
On May 17, 1957, Dr. King delivered a speech at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom before the Lincoln Memorial, demanding those rights be granted. Dr. King stated:
“But, even more, all types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters. The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic traditions and its is democracy turned upside down.”
As we look at some of today’s legislation that has stifled the rights to vote for Blacks, restricting and impacting the ability of Black people to vote remains a focal point.
DR. KING ON FAIR AND EQUITABLE HOUSING ACCESS
In a speech at Chicago Soldier Field Stadium in 1966, as part of the Chicago Open
Housing Movement, Dr. King stated:
“We are here today because we are tired. We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums… We are tired of having to pay a median rent of $97 a month in Lawndale for four rooms while whites living in South Deering pay $73 a month for five rooms. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children.”
Black people still have challenges getting housing and are being priced out of their homes due to skyrocketing property values and gentrification.
Boney is an associate editor at the Forward Times.