With Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaching, it is important to celebrate his life and legacy. King used nonviolent protests to achieve equal rights for Black people, and through that, won awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize. His leadership also opened doors for better opportunities for education and employment for Black people.
Throughout King’s life, he delivered some of the most iconic speeches and quotes of the 20th century, touching on problems going on in the world at that time, and some of those same problems are still occurring to this day. Today, we highlight his speech at The National Conference for New Politics in Chicago.
On May 10, 1967, he delivered “The Three Evils of Society” speech, where he touched on three major things that he thought were hurting the nation at the time.
“We are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple-prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning.” The three evils he referred to were racism, materialism and militarism.
In the 1960s, Black Americans were given more freedom, but there was still a sense of discrimination and inequality in many areas. Voting rights and education opportunities were supposed to be equal, but they were not enforced. King also linked racism and materialism together.
Continue reading on the next page.
