REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
(1929-1968) American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. Signature on a 3 1/2" x 2" card in blue ink, adding the inscription "Best Wishes". On the verso, another hand has added an identifying inscription in black ink: "Commencement address at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio June 19th, 1965". King's speech, delivered at his wife Coretta's alma mater, came at a tumultuous time: the Civil Rights Act had been signed into law in July, 1964, and the attack on peaceful protestors at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched from Selma to Montgomery had just taken place in March. The Voting Rights Act would be passed in August of 1965. King's speech at this traditionally progressive college would contain some of the first vestiges of his shift in focus from domestic civil rights to international and anti-war issues. "If we assume that mankind has the right to survive," he said, "if we assume that we have a right to exist, then we must find some alternative to war and bloodshed... We have come to a point in international affairs where all men of good will must explore the extension of non-violence on an international level, for we who love democracy must see to it that peace and democracy must become realities throughout the world. This, it seems to me, is a great challenge facing our nation and facing the world..." Very good to fine.