Civil Rights Champion
Fifty years ago, the world lost a prophet of justice. Known as a champion of civil rights, during his final years, Martin Luther King Jr. focused much of his attention on the plight of the poor. His final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, focused on fighting poverty. This was also a major theme of his Nobel Peace Prize address.
A Poverty Fighter
At Oslo, Dr. King shared that in addition to racial injustice, "a second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it's nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. . . Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist. . . Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life."
Nobel Peace Price Address
Below is an excerpt from King’s inspiring lecture at Oslo on December 11th, 1964:
Audio from the Nobel Prize Organization and Norsk Rikskringkasting. Photos from the Public Domain. Music by Kevin McLeod. Past the Edge. Creative Commons 3.0. By attribution