Leid Stories - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: ”A Time to Break the Silence” - 01/20/14

2014-01-20

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Leid Stories commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with purposeful contemplation of a guiding principle in his life’s work: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”At a meeting in New York City of the nondenominational Clergy & Laity Concerned, Dr. King exhorted leaders in the faith community -- and people of conscience generally -- to be true advocates for the poor and oppressed by relentlessly opposing U.S. laws and polic...

Leid Stories commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with purposeful contemplation of a guiding principle in his life’s work: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

At a meeting in New York City of the nondenominational Clergy & Laity Concerned, Dr. King exhorted leaders in the faith community -- and people of conscience generally -- to be true advocates for the poor and oppressed by relentlessly opposing U.S. laws and policies that are morally wrong and inhumane – not only for fellow Americans, but for people all over the world.

America’s appetite for war, he said, is sated always by unimaginable hardship, suffering and sacrifices by those least able to bear them – the poor at home and in far-flung corners of the world where America introduces itself with bombs and utter destruction.

This speech was delivered at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day of the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis, Tenn., where he was mobilizing a march in support of 1,300 African American sanitation workers striking for recognition of their union, better working conditions and a living wage.

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