"He who passively accepts evil
is as much involved
in it
as he who helps perpetrate it."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Photograph copyright © 1965
by Stan Daniels, Editor,
Urban Cartographer Online
www.eightcitiesmap.com - all rights reserved.
Editor's Note:
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Martin Luther King, Jr "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee
(excerpts follow)
We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."
And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.
But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."
Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.
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Photograph copyright © 1965
by Stan Daniels, Editor,
Urban Cartographer Online
www.eightcitiesmap.com - all rights reserved.
Read the entire address at:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
We are Honored to be
A Founding Sponsor
President Obama
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Rescheduled Dedication of
August 28 -
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
A Brief Video -
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Please Visit these related pages // YOU CAN BE GREAT // Coretta Scott King // Martin Luther King, Jr // MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR and CONTEMPORARY ISSUES // ROUGH Side of the Mountaintop Speech // KEYS TO PEACE // Coretta Scott King Eulogy
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