By
FREELANCE REPORTER
About 100 people crammed into a Eugene church Tuesday to hear a stimulating reading of “A Time to Break Silence,” the famous 1967 speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“You (could) have heard a pin drop,” said Michael Carrigan, director of development of the Community Alliance of Lane County. “People paid attention from beginning to end.”
In the First Christian Church in Eugene, CALC hosted a dramatic delivery of King’s speech for the group’s 40th anniversary. It was originally given at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967 by the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam.
On Tuesday, 11 speakers and 10 chanters – of mixed races and various ages – contributed to the recital of King’s address.
Carrigan said he was stunned by the speech.
“I’d never heard it before,” he said. “It’s as relevant today as it was in 1967.”
Carrigan said the impact and accuracy of King’s analysis was amazing. He also said the crowd was riveted.
Part of the audience’s captivation was because of the 10 chanters of the CALC advisory board, who would intermittently shout phrases such as, “We must speak,” “Hear their broken cries” and “This madness must cease.” Carrigan said the audience was also attracted by the tone of several speakers who mimicked the physical and oratorical mannerisms of King. CALC also asked Hip Hop Hope performers to read poetry from Langston Hughes, perform an interpretive dance, sing and rap.
King’s words themselves were the most inspiring part of the evening.
“It was a brilliant and prophetic speech,” said Marion Malcom of the CALC advisory board. Malcom said CALC hosted this event to promote justice and human dignity. In fact, Malcom said, CALC invoked King’s speech on the group’s 40th anniversary in Lane County because of the parallels between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War.
King’s 1967 speech was the first time he linked the civil rights movement to his opposition to the war in Vietnam. It was also his first attack on the Johnson administration’s war policy.
Actions like King’s were indicative of his bravery and compassion, Cottage Grove resident Patrick Jordan said.
“King was not only a champion of the African Americans but also a champion of the poor,” he said. “He fought for what was right.”
King reveals his outlook in his speech: “I knew I could never again 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. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”