Dr. King Discussion: Speech Three

[antonyh]

Here is the third Landmark Speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Study Guide:
1) What insights did you gain from this speech about your own civil rights activism?
2) What insights could be applied to our civil rights activism as a community (not just Soulforce, but all LGBT civil rights organizations)?


"Give Us the Ballot," Address at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom

17 May 1957
Washington, D.C.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished platform associates, fellow Americans: Three years ago the Supreme Court of this nation rendered in simple, eloquent, and unequivocal language a decision which will long be stenciled on the mental sheets of succeeding generations. For all men of goodwill, this May seventeenth decision came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of human captivity. It came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of disinherited people throughout the world who had dared only to dream of freedom.

Unfortunately, this noble and sublime decision has not gone without opposition. This opposition has often risen to ominous proportions. Many states have risen up in open defiance. The legislative halls of the South ring loud with such words as "interposition" and "nullification."

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 tradition. And so our most urgent request to the president of the United States and every member of Congress is to give us the right to vote. (Yes)

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.

Give us the ballot (Yes) and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the South (All right) and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.

Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs (Yeah) into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill (All right now) and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a "Southern Manifesto" because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice. (Tell ’em about it)

Give us the ballot (Yeah), and we will place judges on the benches of the south who will do justly and love mercy (Yeah), and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine.

Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's decision of May seventeenth, 1954. (That's right)

Continued at Stanford U:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/Give_us_the_ballot.html


Prior Speeches:

Speech One:
http://www.soulforce.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4118

Speech Two:
http://www.soulforce.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4154

[antonyh]

As three gay civil rights bills are at risk in Congress, I wish every Representative and every Senator could hear these words by Dr. King:


This dearth of positive leadership from the federal government is not confined to one particular political party. Both political parties have betrayed the cause of justice. (Oh yes) The Democrats have betrayed it by capitulating to the prejudices and undemocratic practices of the southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed it by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of right wing, reactionary northerners. These men so often have a high blood pressure of words and an anemia of deeds. [laughter]

In the midst of these prevailing conditions, we come to Washington today pleading with the president and members of Congress to provide a strong, moral, and courageous leadership for a situation that cannot permanently be evaded. We come humbly to say to the men in the forefront of our government that the civil rights issue is not an Ephemeral, evanescent domestic issue that can be kicked about by reactionary guardians of the status quo; it is rather an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our nation (Yes). The hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now, before it is too late.

[Pablo Rafael]

A third source that we must look to for strong leadership is from the moderates of the white South. It is unfortunate that at this time the leadership of the white South stems from the close-minded reactionaries. These persons gain prominence and power by the dissemination of false ideas and by deliberately appealing to the deepest hate responses within the human mind. It is my firm belief that this close-minded, reactionary, recalcitrant group constitutes a numerical minority. There are in the white South more open-minded moderates than appears on the surface. These persons are silent today because of fear of social, political, and economic reprisals. God grant that the white moderates of the South will rise up courageously, without fear, and take up the leadership in this tense period of transition.

The LGBT community as well as the black or hispanic etc. communities being minorities must always have the support of the majority to accomplish any change. Our nation supposedly was set up so that the majority could not oppress the minorities. However, the sad record of history is full of the injustice that this nation has heaped upon minorities. I am always glad when straight supporters come here to the forums. We are too small a group to achieve equal rights on our own.


We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: "He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword." And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love.

Though it may seem contrary to the macho image that our nation is trying to project, I maintain that love is the most powerful force in the universe. If you want someone to work with you, you get much better results if they love you than if you force them.


Now, I’m not talking about a sentimental, shallow kind of love. I’m not talking about eros, which is a sort of aesthetic, romantic love. I’m not even talking about philia, which is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. But I'm talking about agape. I'm talking about the love of God in the hearts of men. I’m talking about a type of love which will cause you to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. We've got to love.

I can't really add much to this. I just think it is a beautiful paragraph. It is really hard to love someone who opresses you. But God says that while we were still enemies, he loved us. I can at least try to follow his example.

[antonyh]

I cannot close without stressing the urgent need for strong, courageous and intelligent leadership from the Negro community. We need a leadership that is calm and yet positive. This is no day for the rabble-rouser, whether he be Negro or white. (All right) We must realize that we are grappling with the most weighty social problem of this nation, and in grappling with such a complex problem there is no place for misguided emotionalism. (All right, That’s right) We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never become bitter. I know how we feel sometime. There is the danger that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the tragic midnight of oppression—those of us who have been trampled over, those of us who have been kicked about—there is the danger that we will become bitter. But if we will become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns, the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order. (Yeah, That's all right)


As we look over the civil rights work done in the LGBT community, does it meet the following tests:

1) Is it strong, courageous and intelligent?
2) Is it calm and yet positive?
3) Is it free of rabble-rousing and misguided emotionalism?
4) Are we working passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom?
5) Is our struggle free of falsehood, hate, and malice?
6) Are our hearts free of bitterness?
7) Are we avoiding indulgence in hate campaigns?

If you look at Americans for Truth (http://www.americansfortruth.org/), it fails on all seven counts. Unfortunately, if you look at the LGBT blogosphere that responds to organizations like Americans for Truth, it also fails many of the tests above. We just can't stoop to doing civil rights like AFT.

And then there was the recent debacle by the HRC. Did they show strong, courageous and intelligent leadership in flip-flopping about the "T" in LGBT (ENDA)? Now the transgender community is splintering from the LGB and attempting to form their own organizations.

I think this is why we need to listen to MLK. We need the sustained, intelligent, disciplined perspective he brought to civil rights activism.

[antonyh]

I can't really add much to this. I just think it is a beautiful paragraph. It is really hard to love someone who opresses you. But God says that while we were still enemies, he loved us. I can at least try to follow his example.

MLK says this over and over that we need to love our oppressor but hate the evil deeds of our oppressor. It is definitely a difficult call.

I’m talking about a type of love which will cause you to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does.

[antonyh]

Here is a bit of encouragement:


There is something in this universe (Yes, Yes) which justifies Carlyle in saying: "No lie can live forever." (All right) There is something in this universe which justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." (Yes. All right) ...

Go out with that faith today. (All right, Yes) Go back to your homes in the Southland to that faith, with that faith today. Go back to Philadelphia, to New York, to Detroit and Chicago with that faith today (That's right): that the universe is on our side in the struggle. (Sure is, Yes) Stand up for justice. (Yes)

Sometimes it gets hard, but it is always difficult to get out of Egypt, for the Red Sea always stands before you with discouraging dimensions. (Yes) And even after you've crossed the Red Sea, you have to move through a wilderness with prodigious hilltops of evil (Yes) and gigantic mountains of opposition. (Yes) But I say to you this afternoon: Keep moving. (Go on ahead) Let nothing slow you up. (Go on ahead) Move on with dignity and honor and respectability. (Yes)

I realize that it will cause restless nights sometimes. It might cause losing a job; it will cause suffering and sacrifice. (That's right) It might even cause physical death for some. But if physical death is the price that some must pay (Yes sir) to free their children from a permanent life of psychological death (Yes, sir), then nothing can be more Christian. (Yes sir) Keep going today. (Yes sir) Keep moving amid every obstacle. (Yes sir) Keep moving amid every mountain of opposition. (Yes, sir, Yeah) If you will do that with dignity (Say it), when the history books are written in the future, the historians will have to look back and say, "There lived a great people. (Yes sir, Yes) A people with ‘fleecy locks and black complexion (Yes),’ but a people who injected new meaning into the veins of civilization; a people which stood up with dignity and honor and saved Western civilization in her darkest hour (Yes); a people that gave new integrity and a new dimension of love to our civilization." (Yeah, Look out) When that happens, "the morning stars will sing together, (Yes, sir) and the sons of God will shout for joy." (Yes sir, All right) [applause] (Yes, That’s wonderful, All right)

[Pablo Rafael]

It seems that some people always have to pay the price so that future generations can reap the rewards. We are reaping the rewards of the civil rights movement in the 1950's and 60's.(Still along way to go, however.) Dr. King did indeed pay a heavy price for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Hopefully future generation will look on us and say that we paid the price that they might have the joy of living in a world free from prejudice against LGBT individuals.