Decades later, activists still answering King's call to speak out

By KARA L. RICHARDSON
Staff Writer

The voice: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The topic: the Vietnam War.

Some peace activists are bringing the 1964 Noble Peace Prize winner's posthumous voice to the conversation about the Iraq war. As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, they say his messages of peace, particularly in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, translate well to the Iraq war, a conflict facing increasing political opposition from Americans.

New Jersey Peace Action will present excerpts of King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech (sometimes called "Why I Oppose the Vietnam War") at noon Monday to mark the group's 50th anniversary at the First Union Congregational Church in Montclair. It will be played again during a People's Organization for Progress Martin Luther King Day event 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Plainfield Library.

"When we read parts of the speech, we said all you have to do is substitute the word 'Iraq' for 'Vietnam' and you have history repeating itself," said Madelyn Hoffman, director of New Jersey Peace Action.

Hoffman, 50, was not yet a teenager when King delivered his "Beyond Vietnam" on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York. It was exactly one year before King's assassination, at a time when his messages of civil rights started to include protests about the Vietnam War.

In the speech, for which King won a posthumous Grammy Award, he warns about sendingskills and money into Vietnam that could be used to help the United States.

"It's what we're seeing now. So much money and people -- our soldiers -- and attention is being sucked into Iraq, and we have great needs here," said Susan Johanesen, president of Somerset Voices for Peace and Justice.

King also speaks about the human toll on the poor and how the Vietnam conflict would alienate the United States from the world.

Johanesen said the same rings true about the Iraq war.

"We can reach to him and use his words because his words were very powerful and timeless," Johanesen said about King's work.

Protesting for peace

On a blustery, cold day in January 2003, a group of about 25 peace activists took turns reading parts of "Beyond Vietnam" out loud on the corner of Route 206 and Amwell Road in Hillsborough, Johanesen said. They held signs. Johanesen's read, "Peace," and had a dove on it. Another protester had one that read, "War is not the answer," hoping that a conflict with Iraq would not start.

But it did, in March 2003, and it continues today. The group continued protesting monthly, eventually moving to the Armed Forces Recruiting Station on West Main Street and Division Street in Somerville. They still meet from 2 to 3 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month.

Johanesen, 52, of Somerville, said she grew up in a family very concerned about civil rights. Twice, she and her family piled into a bus to see King speak. She thinks she was about 12 when she first heard him speak among throngs of other admirers.

"I don't really remember the words. I remember the energy of it," Johanesen said. "He didn't just talk. He didn't call for talks. He called for people to act. He made a strong appeal that it was a moral necessity to speak out, act out and put yourself on the line."

Johanesen recently re-read King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." She has compilations of his speeches and writings. Her friend once sent her digital audio files of his speeches.

"He combined his message of peace with nonviolent action," she said. "That is what you felt from him. Not just, 'Oh yeah, I agree with you,' but 'Oh, I have to do something now.'"

Continuing to inspire

Steven Hatcher, the president of the Plainfield Branch of the People's Organization for Progress, wishes there was someone as powerful to inspire others to rise up and speak out on issues of peace and social justice.

Hatcher passed out 500 fliers about a demonstration two weeks ago to protest the shooting death of Sean Bell in New York. On Nov. 25, police fire 50 rounds at Bell and killed him, an unarmed man celebrating on the eve of his wedding.

Twenty people -- mostly regulars in the People's Organization for Progress -- came to Hatcher's protest. About 10 people protest monthly in front of the Armed Services Recruiting Station.

"Beyond the word is the action. Those things that we see everyday should make people in an uproar and say enough is enough," Hatcher said. Hatcher, 45, keeps a photo of King tacked to his living room wall, next to Malcolm X.

Hatcher uses Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a reminder of the possibilities of peace.

"He helps us to believe there's a Dr. King in all of us," Hatcher said. "We wait for someone to come and save us but that's not going to work. We have to save ourselves. We've got to."

from the Courier News website www.c-n.com