[WardFive] Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Unheard Speech"

https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-martin-luther-king-jr-talks-reparations-wh-1837907942

A newly uncovered speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in 1967 sounds curiously like the civil rights icon is speaking about current-day conditions as he preaches about underfunded schools, the wage gap, white backlash against black progress and the country’s need to address poverty.

On July 30, 1967, less than a year before a bullet from a white supremacist assassin’s rifle would end his life, Dr. King came to County Hall in Charleston, S.C., for a speaking engagement. The visit occurred during the “Long Hot Summer of 1967,” as race-related riots broke out in cities across America, including Plainfield, N.J., Minneapolis, Minn. Detroit, and Milwaukee, just to name a few. King was in Charleston to talk about his Poor People’s Campaign, specifically about the “Freedom Budget,” an economic agenda he thought could solve poverty in America. The “practical, step-by-step plan for wiping out poverty” called for a basic universal income, housing, education reform and a jobs plan. King insisted the revolutionary idea could wipe out widespread poverty in 10 years and many people still believe this radical plan is the final straw which resulted in his death.

For years, the University of South Carolina’s African American history collection featured a short excerpt of the speech, but other than that, there was no transcript or recording of the entire event. Historians and archivists assumed that it was one of the few speeches given by King that was lost to history until one day, the daughters of Eugene B. Sloane, a civil rights journalist from The State newspaper, stumbled across a box in their deceased father’s closet.

“And I will not be silent…” - to injustice, racism, bigotry and white supremacy - “…as long as I am breathing.”

Robert Vinson Brannum

Chairman, NAACP-DC Veterans Committee

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner – 5E08

Commissioner, DC Commission on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Board Member, DC Open Government Coalition, Inc.

President Emeritus, DC Federation of Civic Associations, Inc.

Former President, Bloomingdale Civic Association, Inc.

Chairman Emeritus, 5^th District Citizens’ Advisory Council, Inc.

Chairman Emeritus, Ward 5 Democratic Committee

Former Interim Chairman, DC Commission on National and Community Service

Former Board Member, North Capital Neighborhood Development Corporation, Inc.

Former Board Member, DC Crime Solvers, Inc.

Incorporator and Founding Board Member, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Inc.

Founding Board Member, Veterans and Military Families for Progress, Inc.