Browse content similar to A King's Speech - Martin Luther King on Tyneside. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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-KING: -Well, it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, | 0:00:03 | 0:00:06 | |
but behaviour can be regulated. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:08 | |
It may be true that the law cannot change the heart... | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
THEY SHOUT OUT | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
..but it can restrain the heartless. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
In 1967, | 0:00:21 | 0:00:22 | |
Dr Martin Luther King was in the thick of the civil rights struggle. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
And so that is a challenge, and a great one. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
Opponents, black and white, lined up against him. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
That same year, he made the 8,000 mile round trip to Newcastle | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
to receive an honorary doctorate from the city's university. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
-And deliver... KING: -We've got to come to see... | 0:00:42 | 0:00:44 | |
..a poignant and revealing speech. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
..that the destiny of white and coloured persons is tied together. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:54 | |
For the first time, we show the film of King's speech, | 0:00:55 | 0:01:00 | |
to those who were there, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:01 | |
those who lived in a city renowned for racial harmony, | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
but where racism wasn't far from the surface, | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
and ask, why did this giant of the civil rights movement | 0:01:07 | 0:01:12 | |
travel so far to spend a few short hours | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
in a place he knew little of? | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
-KING: -For freedom | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
and human dignity. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
MARCHERS SHOUT IN UNISON | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
In November 1967, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
Dr Martin Luther King was jailed | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
on a charge of holding an illegal march. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Ambassador Andrew Young was a close friend and ally. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
He didn't like jail... | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
..but he felt that jail time was important... | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
..to cut yourself off from the world. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
And to strengthen yourself spiritually. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
4,000 miles away in Newcastle, they were worried. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
Within days, he was due to receive an honorary doctorate. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
The university cabled its concern and was quickly reassured. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
-WOMAN READS: -"Dr King will arrive Newcastle by train | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
"morning of November 13th as planned. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
"Departing same afternoon. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
"Regret inability to spend more time at university." | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
A few days later, on the 13th of November, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
Martin Luther King arrived. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
Until the last minute, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:37 | |
it wasn't known whether he would actually speak at the ceremony. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
Barbara Bosanquet, wife of Vice-Chancellor Charles Bosanquet, | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
kept a diary of events. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
This is what she writes. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:52 | |
"Another great and moving occasion | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
"took place in November 1967. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
"The university invited Dr Martin Luther King. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
"He travelled up with his young secretary, Andrew Young. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
"They had baths and breakfast with us at the Vice Chancellor's Lodge. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
"They're both very tired men, so they rested | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
"until was time to leave for the ceremony. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
"He was asked at the last moment if he would say a few words after | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
"receiving the degree. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
"And he said he would, off the cuff." | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
-KING: -I need not cause to say... | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
For many years, it was believed | 0:03:30 | 0:03:31 | |
there was no record of King's speech. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
In fact, the film lay in the university's archives, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
yards from researchers trying to piece together King's visit. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
It was a little treasure trove. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:45 | |
And in the midst of that documentation, | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
there is something that led me to believe that it had been filmed. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
Contacted the audiovisual centre. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:56 | |
Sure enough, they found, you know, the tin cans | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
with the old footage in it. | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
The formal ceremony itself was short. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
The university's public orator, John Burnet, set the scene. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
So, Mr Chancellor, I ask you now | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
to confer upon Martin Luther King, Christian pastor... | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Charles Nicholson, a student, was on the podium. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
..the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
Chance had thrown me | 0:04:29 | 0:04:30 | |
from a working-class background kid into the presence | 0:04:30 | 0:04:35 | |
of Martin Luther King. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:36 | |
At the ceremony, Charles carried the mace. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
For this special occasion, they wanted a student to do it. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
So, it was very nerve-racking, yes. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
They'd given me the normal mace bearer's gloves, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
which were about ten sizes too big for me. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
So, I was very frightened that I was going to drop the mace | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
or do something wrong. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:57 | |
Ladies and gentlemen. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here today. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:07 | |
We were quite surprised when the speech occurred | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
and incredibly impressed | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
by the speech and the fact that he made it without any notes. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
It was just straight off the top of his head. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
Racism is a reality... | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
..in many sections of our world today. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
Racism is still | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
the coloured man's burden and the white man's shame. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
And the world will never rise to its full moral | 0:05:38 | 0:05:44 | |
or political or even social maturity | 0:05:44 | 0:05:49 | |
until racism is totally eradicated. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
The speech warned of the risk of creating ghettos in Britain, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
of the dangers of everyday racism. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
King plucked phrases from a repertoire used | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
in his previous performances. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
Yet, the speech had a profound effect on those who heard it. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
You give me renewed courage and vigour, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
-to carry on... -Such a... | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
-..and the struggle to make peace... -..lovely guy. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
..and justice a reality... | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
HE SOBS GENTLY | 0:06:20 | 0:06:21 | |
..for all men and women all over the world. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
Paul Barry photographed the event for The Courier, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
the university's student newspaper. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
And I can assure you that this day | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
will remain dear to me as long as the chords of memory shall lengthen. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:42 | |
I'm not an emotional man. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:46 | |
But... | 0:06:53 | 0:06:54 | |
..what he... | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
..catalysed, I think, was to do things to help. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:06 | |
You honour the hundreds and thousands of people | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
with whom I have been in the struggle for racial justice. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:14 | |
To be in the same room as this person was just phenomenal. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:21 | |
The basic thing about Martin that I remember is he was just a lovely | 0:07:21 | 0:07:27 | |
person with no airs and graces, no big "I ams". | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
He was just wanting to know about other people. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
You got that sense of, this was a very rare person. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
Whether it exists in England or whether it exists in South Africa, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
wherever it is alive, racism must be defeated. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
That particular speech | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
motivated my involvement in protests | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
a month or so later against the white | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
South African rugby team. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
I really don't think up until that point I challenged anything. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
I think he was the catalyst for me | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
becoming what I did become throughout my life. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:18 | |
The tragedy of racism is that it is based not on an empirical | 0:08:18 | 0:08:23 | |
generalisation, but on an ontological affirmation. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
You could've heard a pin drop. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:28 | |
He just told you how it was from his heart. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
It is the idea that the very being of a people is inferior. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:39 | |
Meredyth Bell was there in 1967. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
He was a very impressive orator. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
And all the students were so enthusiastic when he got the degree. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:49 | |
This is something important for a man | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
who did so much to combat racism. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
What an honour for us. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
There's me! | 0:08:59 | 0:09:00 | |
Chris Clode, a student, was also in the audience. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
HE LAUGHS HEARTILY | 0:09:05 | 0:09:06 | |
I think you store the resonance of the things that people like him | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
and like Mandela said. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
And they bury themselves somewhere in the back of your mind. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
And hopefully, they become a sort of guide, you know, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
a guide for yourself later on. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
It may be true that the law can't make a man love me, | 0:09:22 | 0:09:25 | |
but it can restrain him from lynching me. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
And I think that is pretty important also. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
There was something about them. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
It was their stature, their pace with which they spoke to people... | 0:09:35 | 0:09:42 | |
And so that is a challenge, and a great one. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
Their inclusiveness... | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
For all men of goodwill to work passionately and unrelentingly... | 0:09:48 | 0:09:53 | |
And the way that they would listen to their enemies. | 0:09:55 | 0:10:00 | |
Which, I think, was almost unique about them. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
For me to express my deep and genuine appreciation... | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
The speech was delivered at a time | 0:10:09 | 0:10:10 | |
of increasing racial tension in Britain. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
-CROWD: -..six, eight. We don't want to integrate! | 0:10:12 | 0:10:17 | |
In the late '60s, the Conservative MP Enoch Powell | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
was making lurid speeches about immigration. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
They were seized on by racists. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
In 15 or 20 years' time, | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
the black man will have the whip hand over the white man. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:33 | |
Enoch Powell spoke the truth and he's been sacked for it! | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
88% of Slough people say they support Enoch Powell. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
88% Slough people. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
It wasn't just in southern England. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
Racist letters were published in the Newcastle papers. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
He's dead right about the darkies. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
It's too late to avoid the fate overtaking the United States. | 0:10:55 | 0:11:00 | |
We put up with the coloured people for years. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
To have them taking our houses, jobs, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
school places will be going just too far. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
Workers at a Tyneside factory walked out, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
refusing to work with "coloured staff", as they put it. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
The factory's workforce was all white. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:17 | |
Parmjit Mattu experienced racism first-hand. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:25 | |
There's always been verbal abuse. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
And derogatory names. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:28 | |
I would never have worn Asian clothes on the streets. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
Never. Because people would verbally abuse you. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
My full name's Parmjit. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
But the teachers couldn't actually say Parmjit, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
so they named me Pamela. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
And it was only at secondary school I was thinking, well, you know, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
I'm actually going to tell them my name's Parmjit. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
Chris Mullard met King in 1964. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
On his advice, he set up the Newcastle branch | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
One experienced more or less daily racism. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
You know, people calling one "nigger", people calling... | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
Insults of that kind. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
To deny that it was racist would be, you know, foolhardy. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:15 | |
It was racist like in every other part of the country. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
Institutionalised racism was a reality. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:22 | |
I was the very first community relations officer for the whole area. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
So, most of my work was casework. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
One particular case, which went on for years, was out in a small little | 0:12:29 | 0:12:34 | |
village in Northumberland. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
And a doctor's family, | 0:12:36 | 0:12:37 | |
where all sorts of dreadful things were happening. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:42 | |
The whole village ganged up against her. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
But it would be wrong to portray the North East | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
as simply a hotbed of racism. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:50 | |
It also had a reputation for having better race relations | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
than other parts of Britain. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah was a child when King came. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
But all over the world today... | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
We had our windows broken. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
We had dog muck smeared on our windows. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:08 | |
So, the daily realities and challenges that many people have to face, | 0:13:08 | 0:13:13 | |
you know, they were certainly there in the '60s and '70s. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
But Newcastle has long and enduring values | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
and a long tradition of the fight for social justice. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
I think that reputation for... | 0:13:27 | 0:13:30 | |
..for racial harmony is absolutely right in terms of the values. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:37 | |
PROTESTORS SHOUT | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
There was also a tradition of demonstrating and recognising civil rights activists | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
stretching back to the campaign against slavery. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
Frederick Douglass, the most important black abolitionist of the 19th century, comes to Newcastle. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
William Wells Brown, the man who publishes the first black novel in the United States | 0:13:55 | 0:14:00 | |
and a former slave himself, he comes through Newcastle. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
Says it's the most a friendly place he's ever encountered | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
for people of colour. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:07 | |
Those who met King at Newcastle were struck by his calm and presence. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:19 | |
There are certain things in your life that you will always remember. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
And when he came into a room, it was like a spotlight came on. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
I mean, it didn't, but you felt it did. And people moved for him. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
He was very courteous. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
And he asked us what we studied. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:34 | |
And I was doing dentistry. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
So, he said, it's very professional. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
And he gave you that feeling that you were the only person | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
that was important. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
He had three colleagues with him, black Americans, | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
and they had these incredible mohair suits on which were, I mean, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
for a student, you know, on £2 a week, it was wow! | 0:14:49 | 0:14:54 | |
There was money there. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:55 | |
He just seemed perfectly normal. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
Very quiet, approachable, friendly man. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
Well, we were all wearing our suits and ties and on our best behaviour. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
I remember Andrew Young saying to me, | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
"Don't you have any radical students at this university?" | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
By 1967, King was under pressure. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
There is concern about his being away from the US and his mood. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
He was always in anguish and in doubt, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:39 | |
mostly about himself. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
He often wondered, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
"Why was I going to lead this?" | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
Singer Harry Belafonte was a close ally and friend. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
For him to leave America and we were still in our own upheaval, | 0:16:00 | 0:16:05 | |
his presence out of the country | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
meant a lot to us. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:09 | |
Dr King was under brutal, brutal pressure. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:19 | |
The government of the United States, they'd crucified him. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:23 | |
-ON FILM: -Dr King, one of the foremost fighters for civil rights, | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
is one of many speakers who remind the gathering | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
that this march must not be counted a final victory or defeat, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
no matter what the immediate reaction of the members of Congress may be. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:41 | |
One of the most powerful men in the world, | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
and certainly in the American government, | 0:16:43 | 0:16:46 | |
was a man by the name of J Edgar Hoover. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:48 | |
He ran the Federal Bureau of Investigations. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
It corrupts our youth and blights the lives of our adults. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
He did everything in his power to discredit Dr King. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
No, no. Black people are not going to let white people just slap them any more. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
So, what do you see happening now? | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
Well, every time they slap us, we're going to move to break their arms. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
Fellow civil rights campaigners criticised him for being too soft, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
and for preaching nonviolence. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
A nonviolent demonstration gives individuals a chance | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
to let out their pent-up frustrations. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
They didn't believe that we were able to go through all of | 0:17:29 | 0:17:36 | |
the difficulties - the jailings, the beatings, the dogs, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
the fire hoses - | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
without any bitterness and without any hostility. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
We had been at the task of trying to change our conditions for so long | 0:17:48 | 0:17:54 | |
that people were beginning to become weary. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
Faced with so much criticism, | 0:17:58 | 0:18:00 | |
the honour became extremely important to King. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
It represented much needed support. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
And it could be widely publicised. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:07 | |
His speech from Newcastle had huge impact in the Commonwealth. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
I mean, his, his... | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
Being honoured at Newcastle was no secret in the Caribbean. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
It was no secret among the English-speaking Highlands. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
It was no secret among millions of people on the continent of Africa. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
They were willing to stand up for what was right with a little man | 0:18:30 | 0:18:36 | |
who had no army, no money. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
And the only reason he was being recognised was because of a moral vision. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:45 | |
To have a university in England share that vision | 0:18:46 | 0:18:51 | |
was a very powerful asset to his ministry. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:56 | |
MUSIC: Baby Love by The Supremes | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
# Baby love, my baby love... # | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
The Supremes singer Mary Wilson supported King, raised funds. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
Racism is exactly what it says it is. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:11 | |
This is the first time she's seen the speech. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
Racism is a myth of the inferior race. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
This needs to be shown in America. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
It is a notion that a particular race is worthless. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:26 | |
People always saw him in the struggle. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
It would be good to see that this wonderful honour was given to him. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Your honouring me today in this very meaningful way | 0:19:34 | 0:19:40 | |
is of inestimable value. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
Many black people were not honoured in those days. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
So, that was an extremely high honour. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
For a black man. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
And although I cannot in any way | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
say that I am worthy of such... | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
It took someone from outside of the United States | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
to give someone an honour like this. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
Before America would do it. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
My deep and genuine appreciation to the University of Newcastle | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
for honouring me today in such a significant way. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
I think that it was probably one of the highest points in his life, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:23 | |
to receive the honour from Newcastle University. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
Newcastle in the 1960s was not the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of today. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:35 | |
Its shipbuilding, mines and factories were in decline. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
But its university had ambition and guts. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
It risked a backlash in honouring King. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:43 | |
Others who had invited him to speak were pressured to cancel. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
Not too long after Newcastle, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
it had been arranged for him to go to speak | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
to the American church in Paris. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
The State Department had so intimidated that little church that | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
they withdrew its invitation to Dr King and told him | 0:21:02 | 0:21:07 | |
that we are under much too much duress. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
In fact, Newcastle was the only British university to honour King | 0:21:11 | 0:21:16 | |
in his lifetime. The question is, why? | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
Newcastle gets its autonomy as an institution in 1963 | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
and it becomes part of its mission to try to insert itself | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
into the great social debates of the day. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
The university wants to be on the right side of the angels. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
It wants to acknowledge King's previous work | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
and to give him a sense of encouragement to continue that work. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:43 | |
But it would be foolish to say that it doesn't also see some benefit | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
from actually bringing this kind of figure to campus. | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
King's safety was an issue wherever he went. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
David Maslin couldn't get into the hall at Newcastle. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
He hid in a corridor hoping to catch a glimpse of the great man. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
And startled him. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:02 | |
I stood here in this position. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
And as they were going by, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
I was looked at by the academic, a little bit angrily, I thought. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
And Martin Luther King then looked up and he saw me. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
And he pulled back a little bit. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:19 | |
I thought it was almost like a slight flinching movement. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
I don't know quite what he thought, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
whether there was a small element of fear or anxiety. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
While taking tea with the Newcastle students, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
the possibility of assassination was raised. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
Catherine Potter reads from her mother's diary. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
"One of the students asked if he was scared of being shot. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
"He answered yes, of course he was. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
"But what was the use of being scared? | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
"He said sensible precautions were always taken. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
"A special guard was travelling with him in England. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:54 | |
"But he had to go on with his work." | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
He said, "Like everybody else, I'd like to live for a long, long time. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
"What I'm more interested in is how well I have lived. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:09 | |
"And that I did something for humanity." | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
He said, you must overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:19 | |
Only then can you truly be a free human being. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
And I think he practised that. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:25 | |
In January 1968, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
King wrote thanking Newcastle University for its tremendous encouragement. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
He added, "I do hope that our paths will cross again sometime in the | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
"not too distant future." | 0:23:39 | 0:23:40 | |
On the 4th of April, 1968, | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
Dr Martin Luther King was shot dead | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
Andrew Young, standing below in the car park, | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
had been speaking to him. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:02 | |
And all of a sudden, we heard a shot. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
Which I thought was a... | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
a firecracker. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:12 | |
Until I looked up there and saw that he was no longer standing. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:17 | |
And my first reaction was, he's clowning. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
He went back into the room. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
But when I ran up there, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:25 | |
I saw him laying with half of his neck blown away. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
And I realised that... | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
..he had died instantly and probably didn't even... | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
..didn't even hear the shot. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:38 | |
So ended the life of one of history's greatest fighters | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
for social justice. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
His death reverberated around the world. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
America, where the death of another man, Dr Martin Luther King, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
has left the sane world stunned and... | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
Martin Luther King was the leadership. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
And now, all of a sudden, we've lost the leadership. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
It is such an evil thing to have happened to this man. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
The waste, the tragedy of it, is just enormous. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
Dreadful. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:17 | |
It was despair that someone so great... | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
..could be... | 0:25:27 | 0:25:28 | |
..killed. I mean, just... | 0:25:30 | 0:25:32 | |
A new print of the film has been made by the North East Film Archive. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
The words of a man who drew comfort | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
from an honour bestowed on him by a Northern university, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
a man who made his mark on history, are preserved for posterity. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
There are three urgent and indeed great problems that we face. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:04 | |
That is a problem of racism, the problem of poverty | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
and the problem of war. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
That's the unfinished part of his movement. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
To redeem the soul of America, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
and, I should say now, and the world, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
from the triple evils of racism, war and poverty. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:27 | |
And the things that I have been trying to do | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
has been to deal forthrightly... | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
..and in depth | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
with these great and grave problems that pervade our world. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:44 | |
We were proud of Martin Luther King. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
People were proud of him. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
Well, it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, | 0:26:50 | 0:26:54 | |
but behaviour can be regulated. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
Today, we need leadership. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
We don't have that kind of leadership. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
And through changes and habits pretty soon added to the new changes | 0:27:03 | 0:27:08 | |
will take place and even the heart may be changed in the process. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:15 | |
He was a courageous man. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
And I'm glad the University of Newcastle... | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
honoured that courage. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
We've got to come to see | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
that the destiny of | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
white and coloured persons | 0:27:29 | 0:27:34 | |
is tied together. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
We all felt it was a honourable thing that Newcastle did. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:42 | |
With this faith, we will be able to transform | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
the jangling discords of our nation | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
and speed up the day when all over the world, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
justice will roll down like waters | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
and righteousness like a mighty stream. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
Thank you. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:01 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 |