In it he stated that Black leaders could not become blind to the rest of the world's issues while engaged solely in problems of domestic race relations. In January 1966, King published a strong attack on the Vietnam War. At the annualĮxecutive board meeting held in Baltimore on April 1-2, 1965, King expressed the need to criticize the Johnson Administration's policies in Southeast Asia, much to the dismay of colleagues who believed his antiwar sentiment would jeopardize the organization's funding. As a dedicated pacifist, Martin Luther King took a strong public stand against it. Black progressives in electoral politics began to speak out in opposition to the war. Malcolm X was the first prominent African American leader to denounce the Vietnam War, and others soon followed his lead.ĭuring the bitter national debate on Vietnam, all public leaders within black America were forced to choose sides. During 1965-66, the casualty rate for blacks was twice that of whites. As a result, in 1967, 64 percent of all eligible African-Americans were drafted, but only 31 percent of eligible whites. Many middle- and upper-class whites were also able to fulfill military obligations by joining the Army Reserve or the National Guard. During the early years of the war, students enrolled in college could obtain deferments from military service. Members had produced their first uncompromising statement on the war, declaring that blacks should not "fight in Vietnam for the white man's freedom, until all the Negro people are free in Mississippi." From the outset, the burden of the conflict was borne disproportionately by African Americans and working-class and poor whites.
Source: Courtesy of Builder Levy, photographer. Harlem Peace March to End Racial Oppression, 1967.
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