The Trumpet of Conscience

King Legacy #3

by Martin Luther King Jr.

In November and December 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered five lectures for the renowned Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The collection was immediately released as a book under the title Conscience for Change, but after King’s assassination in 1968, it was republished as The Trumpet of Conscience. The collection sums up his lasting creed and is his final testament on racism, poverty, and war.
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Each oration in this volume encompasses a distinct theme and speaks prophetically to today’s perils, addressing issues of equality, conscience and war, the mobilization of young people, and nonviolence. Collectively, they reveal some of King’s most introspective reflections and final impressions of the movement while illustrating how he never lost sight of our shared goals for justice. The book concludes with “A Christmas Sermon on Peace”â a powerful lecture that was broadcast live from Ebenezer Baptist Church on Christmas Eve in 1967. In it King articulates his long-term vision of nonviolence as a path to world peace.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Essays, Politics, Religion, Spirituality

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. King was a Baptist minister, one of the few leadership roles available to black men at the time. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Here he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Reviews

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to infer what a great American civil-rights leader from the 1960’s might have had to say about life in the 2020’s is difficult – but an oft-overlooked book by Martin Luther King Jr. offers some intriguing clues. The Trumpet of Conscience (1967), a collection of five lectures recorded by Dr. King, covers a great deal of ground within the short space of 80 pages, and leaves the reader with a great deal to think about.

This book by an American activist actually has a strong Canadian connection. The Trumpet of Conscience had its beginnings as a set of five lectures that were broadcasted across Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1967, as part of the series of Massey Lectures established by the University of Toronto in honour of Vincent Massey, a former Governor General of Canada (1952-59). As Dr. King talks, throughout these five lectures, about the importance of people working together across borders for the betterment of humankind, the international dimensions of The Trumpet of Conscience are particularly apt and welcome.

Dr. King begins the first of these lectures, “Impasse in Race Relations,” with a gracious acknowledgement of his Canadian hosts, stating that “It is a deep personal privilege to address a nationwide Canadian audience” because “there is a singular historical relationship between American Negroes and Canadians” (p. 3). Thus Dr. King invokes Canada’s status as the place where, in antebellum times, African Americans escaping from slavery knew that they could find true safety. Dr. King emphasizes that “Deep in our history of struggle for freedom, Canada was the North Star.” He adds that when enslaved African Americans sang of heaven, slaveholders who overheard the singing did not know that “Heaven was the word for Canada”; and he concludes these introductory remarks by stating that, “standing today in Canada, I am linked with the history of my people and its unity with your past” (p. 3). I am certain that Canadian listeners from Gander to Victoria listened with appreciation to Dr. King's acknowledgement of Canada's role in the struggle for human freedom.

Dr. King then proceeds to a consideration of the gains made in Civil Rights as of the time of these lectures –- but with a sobering caveat to the effect that there have been limits to those gains:

Negroes were outraged by inequality; their ultimate goal was freedom. Most of the white majority were outraged by brutality; their goal was improvement, not freedom or equality. When Negroes could use public facilities, register and vote in some areas of the South, find token educational advancement, again in token form find new areas of employment, it brought to the Negro a sense of achievement, but it brought to the whites a sense of completion. (p. 4)

Looking at the outbreaks of civic disorder in economically disadvantaged majority-black areas of major U.S. cities, Dr. King quotes Victor Hugo – “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness” – and follows up that quote by suggesting that when it comes to rioting in urban America, “The policy-makers of the white society have cause the darkness: they created discrimination; they created slums; they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance, and poverty” (p. 6). It is a forceful critique, and one that resonates in this “Hands Up – Don’t Shoot” era as powerfully as it did in 1967.

Dr. King then suggests that the kinds of marches that worked so well in small Southern cities like Montgomery and Selma might not work so well in major cities of the North – “In the South, a march was a social earthquake; in the North, it is a faint, brief exclamation of protest” (p. 14) – and sets forth the idea that the time may have come for initiatives of “mass civil disobedience” in the North. It is interesting to contemplate the shape that such initiatives might have taken. Could we have seen episodes like Mohandas K. Gandhi’s “days of prayer and fasting” – those nonviolent general strikes that brought British India to a standstill? It is clear that, right up to the end of his life, Dr. King was still developing provocative non-violent ideas for bringing about much-needed social change.

In “Conscience and the Vietnam War,” Dr. King discusses how, when he began offering public critiques of U.S. policy in Vietnam, he was criticized for it. To borrow a term of contemporary times, his critics seemed to be accusing him of “stepping out of his lane.” But Dr. King felt that the Civil Rights cause at home and the anti-war cause in Vietnam were linked: “We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers” (p. 24).

Making one trenchant point after another regarding the follies and inconsistencies of U.S. policy in Vietnam, with particular emphasis on the U.S. decision to defend democracy by allying with a non-democratic South Vietnam government, Dr. King suggests a new direction that the Americans could take:

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence – when they help us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view, we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. (p. 28)

History shows, sadly enough, that Dr. King’s thoughtful calls for a reconsideration of U.S. policy in Vietnam went unheeded by successive presidential administrations from both major political parties. His 1967 suggestion that “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom” seems only too applicable to the U.S. society of the 2020's.

“Youth and Social Action” offers an incisive look at the often turbulent youth culture of those times. Dr. King sees a “profoundly troubled” majority that is “struggling to adapt itself to the prevailing values of our society”, a smaller group of radicals who “at present…know what they don’t want rather than what they do want”, and a third group of “hippies” who “are struggling to disengage from society as their expression of their rejection of it” (p. 40). I was only 6 years old in 1967, but I remember people, not too much older than myself, who fit well into all three of those categories.

One of the moments from The Trumpet of Conscience that might speak most directly to the people of today comes when Dr. King points to the technological advances of his own time but then states that “Nothing in our glittering technology can raise man to new heights, because material growth has been made an end in itself, and, in the absence of moral purpose, man himself becomes smaller as the works of man become bigger” (p. 42). His words resonate in a world where people seem ever more focused on having the latest mobile phone or “smart watch” or self-driving car, without considering where they will go in that car, or what they will do with the time they note on that smart watch – or whom they will talk with on that mobile phone, or what they will talk about. Our blind faith in our technology may well be our undoing someday.

And the dysfunctions that seem characteristic of contemporary U.S. democracy are set forth, as if in prophecy, when Dr. King suggests that “When an individual is no longer a true participant, when he no longer feels a sense of responsibility to his society, the content of democracy is emptied. When culture is degraded and vulgarity enthroned, when the social system does not build security but induces peril, inexorably the individual is impelled to pull away from a soulless society” (p. 44). What better description of the right-wing populist nationalism of our times could there be?

In “Nonviolence and Social Change,” Dr. King works to refute the arguments of those who claim that the outbreak of rioting and civic disorder in major U.S. cities somehow proves that nonviolent civil-rights activism is played out. I was particularly struck by Dr. King’s declaration that “a nonviolent, direct-action movement” can “find application on the international level, to confront economic and political problems” (p. 64). He offers a forceful argument that “National movements within the developed countries – forces that focus on London, or Paris, or Washington, or Ottawa – must help to make it politically feasible for their governments to undertake the kind of massive aid that the developing countries need if they are to break the chains of poverty” (p. 64). How sad that, more than half a century after Dr. King delivered these lectures to his Canadian audience, much of the developed world has turned in exactly the opposite direction, focusing not on building bridges to struggling societies of the developing world, but rather on building walls to keep people out.

And “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” delivered as a Christmas sermon at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and then re-broadcast by the CBC on Christmas Eve 1967, may remind some readers of Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” or of the “I Have a Dream” speech. There are echoes of both when Dr. King tells his Christmastime audience that “all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” (p. 70). I appreciated the incisive logic through which Dr. King told his audience that a just end can never legitimize unjust means: “[W]e will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree” (p. 72).

And Dr. King provides a haunting look to the future – a future that, sadly, he would not live to see much more of – when he invokes the Christmastime ideal of peace on Earth and discusses how we can, and must, get there:

Now let me suggest first that if we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation – and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone – and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools. (p. 69)

It is a thought-provoking note on which Dr. King concludes the lectures that constitute The Trumpet of Conscience. As always, Dr. King invokes “the fierce urgency of now,” calling fearlessly for a more just, more peaceful, more compassionate world. His words speak to us today as powerfully as they spoke to Dr. King’s original Canadian audience back in 1967. Whether we will heed his words and ideas still remains to be seen.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Luther King's Trumpet of Conscience

The 50th anniversary on April 4, 2018, of Martin Luther King's assassination together with a new book, "To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr." (ed. Shelby and Terry) has prompted me to read or reread some of King's own writings. King's "The Trumpet of Conscience" (1967) was the last of five books King published during his life. It is a short work and consists of five lectures that King delivered in November and December, 1967 fro the Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Thus, these lectures offer an insight into King's thinking near the end of his life.

These lectures show a more radicalized King than some will remember. When he gave these lectures, King had already spoken out strongly against the Vietnam War, a position which alienated some of his followers. His opposition to the war is repeated in no uncertain terms in the second lecture of this series. Then too, King gave these lectures in the aftermath of riots in American cities that followed King's efforts in the South and the enactment of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1963 and 1964. There were some leaders in the civil rights movement that thought King's philosophy of nonviolence inadequate to address the continuing needs of African Americans for economic justice. On the other side, the riots were producing a backlash which impacted King as well as more radical elements. In the five lectures in this book, King addresses both the Vietnam War and the riots.

In "The Trumpet of Conscience", King adheres to his philosophy of nonviolence. However, he pointedly expands its scope. King argues that his movement was never limited to securing voting rights and the end of segregation in the South. Rather, King advocates for an aggressive broader-based non-violent approach to protest poverty, slum housing, militarism, and continued discrimination in the North as well as in the South. The approach would encompass marginal members of American society, not merely African Americans, and in would reach out to similar efforts world-wide. King says in this book that "justice is indivisible" and cannot be limited to ending segregation in the South.

The lectures are interrelated but each has a different focus. The opening lecture examines the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s and argues for the continued need for non-violent activity to address economic inequality. He argues that the rioting in the cities was the result of oppressive and unjust activity by the power structure. The second lecture examines the United States' involvement in Vietnam and critiques it as an unjust war which took attention and resources away from domestic needs. The third lecture, "Youth and Social Action" is one of the more interesting in this collection. It examines what King finds to be the lack of spiritual direction in the United States of his day, and it argues that American young people have been adopting a variety of approaches from adaptation to protest, to the hippie lifestyle, to counter a spiritual lack. King wanted to channel youth into the direction of social action. The fourth lecture covers the riots. King continues to disapprove of violence and he argues that his method of non-violence, enhanced to include the issues of economic injustice and militarism, is a better way to gain results than violence. The final lecture, "A Christmas Sermon on Peace" is the most overtly religious of the five. It reminded me that King's vision was basically spiritual and religious. King stresses how human beings are connected with one another and that the human personality is sacred. He writes: "when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won't exploit people, we won't trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won't kill anybody." Perhaps even more fundamentally, King writes:

"If there is to be peace on earth and goodwill toward men, we must finally believe in the ultimate morality of the universe, and believe that all reality hinges on moral foundations."

For those, such as myself, who lived through the tumult of the late 1960s with the Vietnam War, the protests, and the riots, this book will bring back memories and a sense of discomfort. King's book brings that era with all its problems back to life. I found it valuable to look back it this book with the passage of fifty years and to consider King's words calmly and with the passage of time. There is much of value in this book expressed articulately and with passion. Looking back, many readers may properly be skeptical of the call to social revolution, even nonviolent social revolution. I found the strongest part of King's book was his appeal to the transcendent and to spirituality. It remains difficult and controversial about how spirituality is to be applied to the fallen world of daily life.

King is receiving a great deal of deserved attention this year. I am finding that the best way to revere and to learn from King is to read him for oneself with an open mind. Human love, the transcendent, attempts to improve one's society, and reflective, critical thought never go out-of-date.

Robin Friedman

[Andrew Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Depressingly relevant, but effortlessly inspiring. Reading these late-career lectures, it is hard not to imagine how things would be different if he had lived to continue his work. It is also easy to see the influence of his work on today's movements, whether intentional or subconscious.

[Francesco Bignardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cinque discorsi tenuti da M.L. King in cui il reverendo esplora le tematiche più importanti e delicate della sua epoca: Vietnam, povertà, disoccupazione malcontento e rivolte tra gli afroamericani. Non ci si stupisce nel leggerci tanta attualità, e tante speranze di King purtroppo disattese nel nostro 2022, a 54 anni dalla sua morte.

[Eric Cartier · Rating 5 out of 5]

King composed these five lectures for public broadcast (via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in late 1967. The first two are especially lucid, eloquent, and righteous - they retain their marvelous power now - though all of them are inspired, appealing to whatever kernel of goodness and thirst for justice reside in each of us. Highly recommended for anyone seeking primary source material from one of the great spiritual and political leaders of the 20th century. A few extracts that resonated with me follow:

We are demanding an emergency program to provide employment for everyone in need of a job or, if a work program is impracticable, a guaranteed annual income at levels that sustain life in decent circumstances. It is now incontestable that the wealth and resources of the United States make the elimination of poverty perfectly practicable. (Impasse in Race Relations, 14)

We may now be in the initial period of an era of change as far-reaching in its consequences as the American Revolution. The developed industrial nations of the world cannot remain secure islands of prosperity in a seething sea of poverty. The storm is rising against the privileged minority of the earth, from which there is no shelter in isolation and armament. The storm will not abate until a just distribution of the fruits of the earth enables man everywhere to live in dignity and human decency. (Impasse in Race Relations, 17)

To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. (Conscience and the Vietnam War, 25)

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. (Conscience and the Vietnam War, 31)

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. (Conscience and the Vietnam War, 33)

When an individual is no longer a true participant, when he no longer feels a sense of responsibility to his society, the content of democracy is emptied. When culture is degraded and vulgarity enthroned, when the social system does not build security but induces peril, inexorably the individual is impelled to pull away from a soulless society. This process produces alienation--perhaps the most pervasive and insidious development in contemporary society. (Youth and Social Action, 44)

[Danna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I regret that it’s taken me so long to read a work of Martin Luther King Jr. This is certainly the beginning of a reading journey through his works. Fantastic rhetoric, moving, and true to the present day.

This was a transcript of 5 lectures. How could I not underline almost everything? Here are (a very limited some) my favorite quotes.

I. Impasse in Race Relations
-When they finally reached for clubs, dogs, and guns, they found the world was watching, and then the power of nonviolent protest became manifest.

II. Conscience and the Vietnam War
-We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8000 miles away to guarantee liberties in south east Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem
-I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of the violence in the world today: my own government
-I cannot forget that the Noble Prize for Peace was also a commission… but even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

III. Youth and Social Action
-Mammoth productive facilities with computer minds, cities that engulf the landscape and pierce the clouds, planes that almost outrace time — these are awesome, but they cannot be spiritually inspiring. Nothing in our glittering technology can raise men to new heights, because material growth has been made an end in itself, and, in the absence of moral purpose, man himself becomes smaller as the works of man become bigger.

IV. Nonviolence and Social Change
-I am convinced that even very violent temperaments can be channeled through nonviolent discipline, if the movement is moving, if they can act constructively and express through an effective channel their very legitimate anger.

V. A Christmas Sermon on Peace
-We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering… we will still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.

[Blaire Malkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of 5 lectures that King gave as part of the CBC’s Massey lecture series it includes lectures on his opposition to the war in Vietnam, on the youth movement, on the use of non-violence and what it means. He also addresses redistribution of wealth, the societal causes that led to riots including comparing property destruction to violence against persons and the long history of white landlords and employers violating laws in those communities and going unpunished. It was really interesting to hear his introduction discussing the special relationship between Black Americans and Canadians as Canada stood for freedom for so many.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems obvious now, but I was not aware of King speaking about Vietnam.

I greatly enjoyed the eloquence and message. I love that King presents the problem and the possible solution, as well as a message of hope, love, and determination while the solution is struggling to become reality.

[Josie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a genius

[ryii · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are 79 pages if you count MLK's bio at the end. That said, what a powerful book. I had always heard speeches, read recollections, but I had never read his words. This collection was awesome. What a great orator and writer. It saddens me that with a few name/date/issue changes, nothing much has changed. And yet so much has changed. I definitely recommend his work. Totally accessible, moving, inspirational, exciting. Loved it.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in the King Legacy series collects five speeches that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation late in 1967. Over 10 years after the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, he reflects openly and honestly about the continued struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of us get a sanitized version of King and his teachings, but reading books such as The Trumpet of Conscience calls attention to how much of a radical he was. As Marian Wright Edelman writes in her foreword, he was a “disturber of unjust peace” (p. x) and a person “who called for massive nonviolent demonstrations to end war and poverty” (pp. x-xi) across the world. King never separated race from class:

“There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes right through that red light, and normal traffic had better get out of its way. Or, when a man is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed.
“There is a fire raging now for the Negroes and the poor of this society. They are living in tragic conditions because of the terrible economic injustices that keep them locked in as an ‘under-class,’ as the sociologists are now calling it. Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved.” (p. 55).

We see King advocating for a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in his speeches, a concept that could do much good for the United States of the 21st century:

“We are demanding an emergency program to provide employment for everyone in need of a job or, if a work program is impracticable, a guaranteed annual income at levels that sustain life in decent circumstances. It is now incontestable that the wealth and resources of the United States make the elimination of poverty perfectly practicable.” (p. 15).

Even while speaking about historical and systemic racism, King always presented a unifying message for the sake of social justice:

“Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.” (p. 70).

The Trumpet of Conscience is a remarkable little book from a leader who knew truly the value of words. Despite whatever flaws he may have had, King exemplified courage and intellectual honesty during his lifetime.


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[Image: Book Cover]

Citation:
King, M.L. (2010). The trumpet of conscience. Beacon Press. (Original work published 1968)

Title: The Trumpet of Conscience
Author(s): Martin Luther King, Jr.
Series: The King Legacy #3
Year: 1968
Genre: Nonfiction - Politics, Economics, & Religion
Page count: 96 pages
Date(s) read: 8/2/25 - 8/3/25
Book 159 in 2025
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The King Legacy Series:
Book 1: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
Book 2: Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
Book 3: The Trumpet of Conscience
Book 4: Why We Can't Wait
Book 5: All Labor Has Dignity
Book 6: "Thou, Dear God": Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirits
Book 7: A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings
Book 8: "In a Single Garment of Destiny": A Global Vision of Justice
Book 9: I Have a Dream
Book 10: A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students
Book 11: The Radical King

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1967, a Canadian radio invited Martin Luther King Jr to talk freely about topics of his choice. The pastor will take the opportunity, and, chose to deliver speeches about matters of importance to him: racism, the Vietnam war (that he firmly opposed), the key role of youth in changing society, and the reaffirmation of the core principles pertaining to a peaceful engagement, at a time when African-American activism is tipping towards violence and riots. To wrap it all up, he ends by a sermon for Christmas, calling for peace in the world.

'The trumpet of conscience', then, is the crucial book to read to fully understand the pastor and his key core beliefs. Short and extremely accessible, it may lack in energy and warmth at time (you can tell that, here are words he has repeated over and over again, to the point of being tired of it himself!) but that will nevertheless resonate with anyone standing up against racism, poverty, and violence.

Learning to live together like brothers, or, dying all like imbeciles: is it that a difficult choice to make? This should be a must read.

[Big Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? Bro lives up to the hype. He gives me Cicero vibes he so clean w the rhetoric, but instead of bighead topics he's preaching civil rights in 1967. Huge emphasis on nonviolence, and yet massive civil disobedience. This book is a 5-part series of speeches so it was pretty short, but has left a deep impression on me.

MLK on nonviolence: "Nonviolence had muzzled their guns and Negro defiance had shaken their confidence. When they finally reached for clubs, dogs, and guns, they found the world was watching, and then the power of nonviolent protest became manifest. It dramatized the essential meaning of the conflict and made clear who was the evildoer and who was the undeserving victim."

MLK on civil disobedience: "Nonviolent protest must now mature to a new level to correspond to heightened black impatience and stiffened white resistance. This higher level is mass civil disobedience. There must be more than a statement to the larger society; there must be a force that interrupts its functioning at some key point."

Bro really just has banger on banger in this book. Shoutout to MLK jr forreal.

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When old revelations sear you years later it gives you a sense of their power and a need to act. I don't know what I'll do exactly, but the vague waftings of peace and equality that sometimes emanate from my consciousness need flesh and bone! Got to build some skills in me and others that help foster the creative tension and positive revolution away from exploitation.

I also like that he used the story of your morning breakfast involving half the world (different ingredients) coming from all over the world as a parable of the underlying inter-relatedness of the universe and humankind, rather than a fearful concept of how much we are exploiting the planet (as I often take it!).

A great invocation for us to live in hope even while having our eyes open about racism, sexism, unemployment and all inequalities that reduce human society.

[Jim Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this about 22 years ago for a Theology class I was taking in college, was absolutely blown away by this book, just crushed. I still remember sitting there in a diner late at night with a library copy, scribbling notes, pausing, just feeling it sink in. All of MLK's books were powerful, but this struck me as by far the best of what he had to say, carried so much power.

I've read it a couple of times since and decided to read it again today in honor of the holiday.

Still an absolutely amazing book. Sadly, still absolutely relevant to our situation today. Sadly, still mostly ignored, even by the people who love to shout out about how much they love and have been moved by the legacy of King...

[Paul Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book, where each lecture speaks to more or less the idea of non- violence and the need to recognize the dignity of all men through the implementation of just laws.

He doesn’t just centre it on the news for just laws for blacks in the US, but also just laws for all men in the world. There is comments in every lecture on the Vietnam war.

My most memorable lecture I read was “social action and the youth”.

All in all it gives some good insights and good for thought on perennial ideas: truth, justice, and the interconnectedness if all men and nations (more so in the Christmas sermon).

[Eric in Ohio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, this collection of broadcast essays was an assigned reading in a class I taught. It was good then, an insight 20 years on, to a different time and place. I’ve read it more than once in the 30 years since, but haven’t thought about it much in the last decade or so. Reading in the wake of 2020’s renewed attention to recurring racial injustice, and amidst a pandemic, King’s insights continue to resonate, whether about why people rise up or how all life is interrelated. Still relevant and still so good, it should be assigned reading.

[Adriana Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Luther King Jr. tem o dom da palavra e ouvir o que ele fala, ler o que ele escreve, tem o potencial de acordar alguma coisa estranha adormecida dentro da gente.

Estranho e triste pensar como várias das coisas ditas nessas conferências de 1967 ainda são tão válidas hoje. Os problemas são ou os mesmos ainda ou os mesmos vestidos de maneiras diferentes. Isso faz dessas palavras ainda mais valiosas porque podem nos estimular a mudar as respostas que temos dado a esses problemas e assim, quem sabe, parar de repetir esse ciclo de injustiças e erros.

[Pete Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of MLK sermons from the winter of 1967. A great window into the late King, who, refusing to rest on his laurels from his early-60s victories, has moved North and gone global to call for massive civil disobedience to take on urban decay, global poverty and imperial militarism. His final speech is an amazing doubling down on the "I have a dream" message, but with a radical layer added to it.

[Derek Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

First work I read from Doctor King. I don’t believe anyone possesses the masterful quality of inspiring action though text. A great read and I highly recommend this book as a read-first for Doctor King, as it encapsulates his powerful beliefs into a brief book. Another note: it struck me how much the issues haven’t changed since his time! We are still wrestling with these problems in America today.

[Lennie Wynker · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the dreamers died and their dream died with them. RFK, JFK, MLK, Malcom X and so many others, I wonder what they would make of our society? Would they weep?

It was a great read, however, the price was excessive for the UK version. I paid about £11 for the Kindle version and there's less than a 100 pages!!

[Hannah Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first taste of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. truly unfiltered.

I cannot put into words what he did in these 5 lectures. All I can suggest is to read them for yourself. The wisdom and his analysis is invaluable leaving me wondering how to follow it and cultivate a heart for the world like his.

[marcus miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this in 2018 it is amazing how many of MLK's ideas are relevant and speak to the issues of today. Perhaps it is a sad reflection that little in regards to poverty, racism and violence has changed in our society.

[Sean Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

King is prophetic and timeless. His last words on poverty, racism, and war read like they are ripped from today’s world in 2021. Change the names, the dates, and locations, but the injustices are the same. So is the call for eternal hope.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful collection of 5 lectures given toward the end of MLK Jr's life, mostly calling people to listen to their consciences about the Vietnam War. Strongly anti-violence and anti-war, this collection is short and moving.

[Kristin Komar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of five lectures that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr gave in Canada. He speaks very eloquently about racism, poverty, and, war. The book concludes with “A Christmas Sermon on Peace” a powerful lecture that was broadcast live from Ebenezer Baptist Church on Christmas Eve in 1967.

[Diletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most inspirational book I have ever read

[William Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro histórico e, para quem deseja conhecer mais sobre a luta de Luther King, acho excelente.

[Andreea Iacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

E pentru data cand citesc aceasta carte Trompeta Constintei