WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip probably from April 25, 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to reporters at a press conference held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia about presidential candidates for the 1968 election; the Vietnam War; and interactions with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Stokely Carmichael. Comments in the clip are not always completely recorded. Dr. King sits at a table with microphones in front of him. Fellow Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) leader reverend Andrew Young stands beside him. King begins by mentioning newspaper articles advocating that he become a presidential candidate for the 1968 election; he announces that he will not do so. Next King warns of a potential national disaster if the United States government continues to focus on war at the expense of racial equality. Even if the Vietnam War escalates and "make relevant an independent candidacy" King proclaims that he will not consider a political office. When an off-screen reporter asks King who he thinks would make a good candidate for president King avoids the question by asserting his hope for an end of the Vietnam War, which he believes would make an independent candidacy unnecessary, and reiterating that SCLC does not endorse political candidates. Although he has no basis for his hope that the war will end King believes that millions of citizens will "oppose this war very vigorously" and that this opposition to the war will encourage the government to change its position. After this the discussion turns...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia