The National Emergency Committee of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV) hosted Martin Luther King, Jr in April 1967, where he used the organization’s platform for his widely acclaimed ‘‘Beyond Vietnam’’ speech that condemned the war in Vietnam.
This speech has heavily influenced the theme for the 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration. This week of celebration falls on the 50th Anniversary of King’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. The killing took place on April 4, 1968, and the event sent shock waves reverberating around the world. The design theme for this year is inspired by the color scheme of the Lorraine Motel where King, a civil rights leader, was fatally shot. The theme was also heavily informed by King’s ‘‘Beyond Vietnam’’ speech which calls for listeners to speak up in challenging times stating,
“And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”
This is our foundation as we move to create a Mason-wide celebration of the Spirit of King and his long lasting words that can carry our Nation and globe and ring true 50 years after his assassination.
