Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, 1929-1968

Today’s MLK day, and to honor his memory, Democracy Now is broadcasting two of his best-remembered speeches – Beyond Vietnam (1967) and I Have Been to the Mountain Top (1968, given the night before he was murdered).

To me, one of the most impressive things about Dr. King is his anti-war stance. He’s so well remembered for the leadership he gave to the civil rights movement, but he also took up an ethical – and, at the time, rather unpopular stance in his own community – objection to the Vietnam war. Most of his fellow leaders in the civil rights movement would have preferred that King continue to focus on equal rights for African-Americans – not just because that had been their focus, but also because to come out against Vietnam would antagonize Lyndon Johnson, the hawkish U.S. president. It is a measure of Dr. King’s resolution and his commitment to equality for all people, not just those in his own community or bloodline, that he continued to speak his mind.

Listen to these two speeches if you have the time today, and take an hour out to celebrate our country’s most famous pacifist, and one of our most admirable and creative leaders.