Sixty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Prize for Peace. In his Nobel Lecture, delivered on December 11, 1964, Dr. King spoke about the presidential election in the United States in which Democratic candidate Lyndon Johnson had defeated Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in a landslide victory.
Prior to this occasion, Dr. King had refrained from speaking about electoral politics, or from endorsing one candidate or party over another. In 1964, however, the stakes were too high to be ignored.
“The American people revealed great maturity by overwhelmingly rejecting a presidential candidate who had become identified with extremism, racism, and retrogression,” he told the Oslo University audience.
“The voters of our nation rendered a telling blow to the radical right,” he said. “They defeated those elements in our society which seek to pit white against Negro and lead the nation down a dangerous Fascist path.”
Today, six decades later, we face another national election in which democracy itself is on the ballot. Will the American people reveal comparable maturity?
We don’t yet know. It appears unlikely that we will there will be a comparably overwhelming rejection of extreme nationalism, racism, hatred, intolerance, nativism, and violence.
Johnson won 486 electoral votes in 1964; Goldwater won 52 — we just need to cross the line of 270.
Each of us can only speak for ourselves, and act accordingly — on November 5 and on every other day.
And we must do everything we can to guide our nation toward the humane, democratic path Dr. King set out for us.
Jonathan D. Greenberg
